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LETTER 

TO    A   WHIG    MEMBER    OF    THE    SOUTHERN 
INDEPENDENCE    ASSOCIATION. 


LETTER 


TO 


A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN 
INDEPENDENCE   ASSOCIATION. 


BY   GOLDWIN    SMITH, 


BOSTON: 

TICKNOR     AND     FIELDS. 
1864. 


-8 


AUTHOR'S  EDITIOX,  FROM  ADVANCE  SHEETS. 


UNIVERSITY   PRESS: 

WELCH,   BIGELOW,   AND  COMPANY, 

CAMBRIDGE. 


3,  fetter  t0  a  SJng  ggtemhr  0f 


MY   DEAR 

You  and  I  have  some  political  principles  in 
common,  and  there  is  therefore  no  absurdity  in  my  attempt 
ing  to  reason  with  you  on  a  political  question  as  to  which 
we  happen  to  differ.  Your  Association  wishes  this  country 
to  lend  assistance  to  the  Slave-owners  of  the  Southern  States, 
in  their  attempt  to  effect  a  disruption  of  the  American  Com 
monwealth,  and  to  establish  an  independent  Power,  having, 
as  they  declare,  Slavery  for  its  corner-stone.  I  am  one  of 
those  who  are  convinced  that  in  doing  so  she  would  commit 
a  great  folly  and  a  still  greater  crime,  the  consequences  of 
which  would  in  the  end  fall  on  her  own  head.  If  you  were 
an  enemy  to  free  institutions,  and  a  lover  of  "  Slavery,  Sub 
ordination,  and  Government,"  I  should  at  once  understand 
your  position,  and  despair  of  moving  you  from  it  by  any 
arguments  of  mine.  But  as  you  are  a  friend  to  free  institu 
tions,  at  least  up  to  the  measure  of  1688, 1  do  not  so  entirely 
despair  of  offering  you  such  reasons  as  may  at  least  induce 
you  to  hesitate  before  you  plunge  your  country  into  an 
American  war.  For  it  is  towards  war  that  you  are  now 
driving.  You  are  doing  your  utmost  to  facilitate  the  escape 
of  the  Confederate  iron-clads  from  the  Mersey.  One  of  the 
most  eminent  of  your  number  has  given  notice  of  a  motion 
in  Parliament,  evidently  having  this  end  in  view.  And  if 


6  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE 

these  vessels  are  allowed  to  go  out,  you  do  not  doubt,  I  pre 
sume,  that  there  will  be  war.  Indeed,  you  must  be  conscious 
that  bare  recognition,  the  ostensible  object  of  your  Associa 
tion,  would  be  futile,  or  rather  would  enrage  the  Federals, 
and  determine  them  to  persevere.  Suppose  Ireland  were  in 
rebellion,  what  effect  would  the  recognition  of  the  insurgent 
government  by  a  foreign  power,  say  France,  produce  on  the 
temper  of  the  English  nation  ?  Would  it  make  us  more 
willing  to  yield  the  victory  to  the  insurgents,  and  to  acqui 
esce  in  the  disruption  of  our  empire  ? 

The  course  taken  by  the  Government  has  unfortunately 
been  such  as  to  give  the  attempts  of  your  Southern  friends 
and  their  allies  to  embroil  us  with  the  Federals  a  very  fair 
chance  of  success.  They  have  declined  to  take  their  stand 
on  the  firm  ground  of  international  duty,  which  plainly  for 
bids  us,  as  professed  neutrals,  to  allow  either  belligerent  to 
make  our  shores  the  base  of  his  maritime  operations,  and 
have  taken  their  stand  instead  on  the  ground  of  municipal 
law,  which  is  wholly  irrelevant  as  between  nations,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  they  have  shrunk  from  amending  the  muni 
cipal  law  in  the  manner  required  in  order  to  render  it  equal 
to  the  present  need.  The  consequence  is,  apparently,  that 
only  the  law's  delay  (a  most  humiliating  protection)  is  now 
interposed  between  us  and  a  calamity  which  even  those  who 
are  doing  their  best  to  bring  it  on  us,  would  almost  fear 
to  name. 

You  perhaps  think  that  because  the  Americans  have 
already  a  war  upon  their  hands,  they  will  tamely  see  their 
ships  burned  and  their  commerce  destroyed  by  vessels  cruis 
ing  from  the  ports  of  an  ally.  If  the  Commonwealth  has 
men  of  spirit,  and  men  who  know  their  duty,  at  her  head, 
rather  than  see  her  suffer  such  dishonor,  they  will  see  her 
in  an  honorable  grave.  But,  judging  from  experience,  I 
think  you  much  miscalculate  the  habits  of  nations  when  they 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  7 

are  once  roused  to  a  certain  pitch  of  frenzy  by  a  desperate 
struggle  for  existence.  The  French  Republic,  when  we 
attacked  her,  had  two  great  military  powers  already  on  her 
hands.  She  was  besides  bankrupt  and  torn  by  civil  war. 
Yet  she  was  ready  to  fly  at  the  throat  of  another  enemy. 
And  the  victory  over  the  revolutionary  levies  of  a  nation 
driven  to  despair,  which  seemed  so  sure  and  easy,  cost  us,  as 
we  know,  twenty  years  of  war. 

Let  me  first  tell  you  why  it  is  that  I  feel  the  interest 
which  I  do  not  wish  to  disguise  in  the  fortunes  of  the  Com 
monwealth  which  you  are  so  anxious  to  break  up.  It  is  not 
from  a  fanatical  love  of  what  are  commonly  called  Repub 
lican  institutions,  or  from  a  desire  precipitately  to  "  Ameri 
canize  "  any  country  which  is  not  yet  ripe  for  the  largest 
measure  of  self-government.  A  man  must  have  read  history 
to  very  little  purpose  if  he  has  not  learned  that  political 
institutions  must  vary  according  to  the  character,  intelli 
gence,  and  social  condition  of  a  nation ;  and  that  all  are 
equally  beneficent  after  their  kind,  which  at  a  given  time, 
and  under  given  circumstances,  suit  the  requirements  of  the 
people.  Would  that  our  statesmen,  who  turn  Indian  Zem 
indars  into  squires,  and  press  upon  the  untrained  Greeks  a 
parody  of  the  English  Constitution,  were  a  little  more  con 
scious  of  this  great  truth.  The  Americans,  for  their  part, 
seem  not  wholly  unconscious  of  it.  Though  Republicans 
themselves,  they  show  no  fanatical  hatred  of  our  monarchy. 
They  receive  the  heir  to  the  English  throne  with  demonstra 
tions  of  enthusiastic  affection,  and  I  believe  Queen  Victoria 
reigns  in  their  hearts  as  completely  as  she  does  in  ours. 

Indeed,  if  my  heart  were  set  upon  a  republic  of  the  clas 
sical  kind,  —  the  republic  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  and  the 
debating-clubs,  - —  I  should  look  for  it  in  the  seceding  States, 
or  anywhere  rather  than  in  a  land  of  political  equality  and 
social  justice.  The  classical  republics  were  based  on  Slav- 


8  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE 

ery :  the  political  character  of  their  citizens  was  that  of 
a  dominant  caste  maintained  in  proud  idleness  by  the  labor 
of  servile  hands  :  and  this  character  is  avowedly  imitated  by 
the  Southerns,  though  more  successfully  in  point  of  courage 
and  military  vigor  than  in  point  of  cultivation  and  refinement. 
I  wonder  it  has  never  occurred  to  those  who  were  exulting 
over  the  failure  of  republican  institutions,  and  in  the  same 
breath  lauding  the  political  greatness  of  the  South,  that  the 
South  also  is  a  republic,  with  exactly  the  same  constitution 
as  the  North  in  all  essential  respects,  saving  the  article  which 
prohibits  the  Southern  Congress  from  passing  any  law  deny 
ing  or  impairing  the  right  of  property  in  negro  slaves. 

My  reason  for  feeling  a  deep  interest  in  the  American 
Commonwealth  is  this :  It  seems  to  me  that  the  aim  of  all 
social  effort,  and  the  object  of  all  social  aspiration,  is  to  pro 
duce  a  real  community,  every  member  of  which  shall  fully 
share  the  fruits  and  benefits  of  the  social  union.  I  say  this 
in  no  communistic  or  revolutionary  sense,  but  in  the  sense 
in  which  it  must  be  felt  to  be  true  by  all,  whether  Liberals 
or  Conservatives,  who  are  trying  to  improve  the  condition 
of  the  poor,  and  especially  by  those  who  are  doing  so  in 
obedience  to  the  social  principles  laid  down  in  the  Gospel. 
Such  is  the  goal  to  which  the  progress  of  society,  through 
all  its  various  and  successive  phases,  would  seem  to  be  tend 
ing,  if  it  is  tending  to  any  goal  at  all,  and  is  not  a  mere  blind 
and  aimless  current.  That  English  society  in  its  present 
state  is  very  far  from  having  reached  this  goal,  is  what  you 
will  scarcely  think  it  Jacobinical  to  assert.  It  is  an  open 
question  among  writers  on  economical  history  whether  the 
mass  of  the  peasantry  in  this  country  have  really  shared  at 
all  in  the  increase  of  wealth  and  comfort  which  has  accrued 
to  the  upper  classes  in  the  course  of  the  last  three  hundred 
years.  No  one  will  venture  to  say  that  they  have  shared  in 
anything  like  a  fair  proportion.  Too  many  of  them  are  still 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  9 

in  a  state  of  great  misery,  of  brutal  ignorance,  and  of  the 
vice  which  misery  and  ignorance  always  bring  in  their  train. 
Millions  of  our  laboring  population  live  constantly  in  view 
of  penal  pauperism,  and  nearly  a  million  of  them  on  the 
average  are  actually  paupers.  They  pass  through  life  with 
out  hope  :  they  die  in  destitution  :  the  only  haven  of  their 
old  age,  after  a  life  of  toil,  is  the  workhouse.  In  most  cot 
tages  of  many  counties  the  children  are  under  fed  that  the 
father  may  have  enough  to  work  upon  :  and  any  physician 
who  has  been  much  among  the  poor  will  tell  you  that  num 
bers  of  them  die  in  their  infancy  from  want  of  proper  food 
and  clothing.  In  Ireland,  centuries  of  horrors  to  which,  I 
say  most  deliberately,  history  affords  no  parallel,  seem  to  be 
closing  in  the  expatriation  of  a  people.  There  is  wealth, 
luxury,  and  splendor,  such  as  perhaps  the  world  never  saw, 
in  the  palaces  of  our  nobles  and  our  wealthy  merchants  and 
stockbrokers :  but  there  is  hunger,  and  the  horrible  diseases 
that  wait  on  hunger,  at  the  palace  gates.  Pass  from  the 
dwellings  of  the  rich  to  those  of  the  poor,  and  you  will  own, 
that  though  we  may  be  a  great  and  powerful  nation,  a  com 
munity  in  the  full  sense  of  the  term  we  are  not.  These 
things  are  freely  stated  and  even  exaggerated  by  Conserva 
tive  writers  whose  object  it  is  to  disparage  the  present  in 
honor  of  the  past ;  and  I  do  not  see  why  it  should  be  trea 
son  to  state  them  when  the  object  is  to  prevent  the  same 
party  from  destroying  the  opening  prospects  of  the  future. 

While  the  mass  of  the  people  have  so  little  interest  in  the 
existing  state  of  things,  and  while  they  are  at  the  same  time 
so  wanting  in  the  education  and  intelligence  requisite  for  the 
exercise  of  political  rights,  our  statesmen  naturally  shrink 
from  giving  them  the  franchise :  though  all  of  us,  even  the 
strongest  Conservatives,  are  conscious  that  it  is  not  a  just  or 
sound  system  under  which  the  bulk  of  the  community,  while 
they  bear  all  political  burdens,  while  they  pay  heavy  taxes 
1* 


10  A  LETTER  TO   A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF  THE 

and  shed  their  blood  for  the  country  in  war,  are  excluded 
from  all  political  rights.  A  fraction  of  our  citizens  (if  it  is 
not  a  mockery  to  use  the  term)  enjoy  the  franchise.  The 
rest  enjoy  what  even  the  leader  of  the  Conservative  party 
has  derided  as  the  ironical  franchise  of  "  virtual  represen 
tation  " ;  that  is  to  say,  they  are  left  in  the  hands  of  classes 
whose  interests  are  often  quite  different  from  theirs.  Great 
progress  has  been  made  since  the  Middle  Ages  in  every 
respect,  except  perhaps  the  more  romantic  qualities,  among 
the  upper  classes  of  society :  but  the  condition  of  the  unen 
franchised  laborer,  if  you  look  at  the  real  facts,  instead  of 
being  satisfied  with  the  mere  name  of  freeman,  is  little 
above  that  of  the  mediaeval  villain.  He  is  even  still,  under 
the  Law  of  Settlement,  in  some  measure  bound  to  the  soil. 

No  man  who  loves  his  kind,  and  feels  that  his  own  happi 
ness  depends  on  the  happiness  of  his  fellows,  can  desire  that 
such  a  state  of  things  should  be  final.  No  man  of  sense  and 
reflection,  I  believe,  imagines  that  it  will  be  so. 

Now,  in  the  American  Commonwealth,  partly  I  grant  by 
the  bounty  of  nature  and  the  lavish  fertility  of  a  virgin 
world,  but  partly  also,  I  think,  by  institutions,  especially  by 
those  regulating  the  distribution  of  land,  and  by  the  thorough 
diffusion  of  popular  education,  one  portion  at  least  of  these 
evils,  the  poverty  of  the  masses,  has  been  to  a  great  extent 
removed.  The  laborer  in  America,  in  a  material  point  of 
view  at  least,  is  prosperous  and  happy.  He  is  the  possessor 
of  property :  he  has  no  fear  of  dying  in  the  workhouse,  or 
of  seeing  starvation  and  destitution  round  his  death-bed.  If 
he  is  industrious  and  frugal,  he  has  all  the  world  before  him  ; 
and  however  ambitious  he  may  be,  however  high  he  may 
look,  hope  still  cheers  him  on,  for  he  sees  one  of  his  own 
class  in  the  foremost  office  of  the  state.  This  you  will  say 
is  a  coarse  happiness,  falling  far  short  of  high  civilization. 
Still  it  is  something,  as  the  world  moves  slowly,  and  it  is  the 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  11 

basis  of  all  the  rest :  for  though  man  does  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  he  must  have  bread  to  live.  Property  confers  dignity 
and  self-respect :  the  hope  of  rising  in  the  world  sustains 
frugality  and  self-denial:  the  removal  of  physical  misery 
stanches  the  greatest  source  of  crime.  Of  the  fact  that  the 
laborer  is  more  prosperous  in  the  Free  States  than  in  this  coun 
try,  and  that  one  step  in  the  improvement  of  man's  lot  has 
at  least  been  gained,  the  vast  emigration  from  this  country 
to  America,  which  continues  unabated  in  the  midst  of  civil 
war,  is  in  itself  a  conclusive  proof.  The  number  of  emi 
grants  will  go  far  towards  making  up  to  the  North  for  the 
loss  of  life  in  the  war,  at  least  according  to  a  rational  esti 
mate  of  that  loss,  though  not  according  to  the  estimate  of  pub 
lic  instructors,  who,  to  produce  a  budget  of  gratifying  horrors, 
set  down  all  the  soldiers  whose  term  has  expired  as  killed. 

As  to  the  political  part  of  the  grand  experiment :  before 
we  estimate  its  result,  we  must  in  fairness  make  allowance 
for  some  heavy  drawbacks.  We  must  make  allowance  for 
the  violent  bias  towards  the  democratic  side  given  to  the 
States,  at  the  outset  of  their  career  as  a  nation,  by  their 
struggle  for  freedom  against  the  monarchy  and  aristocracy 
of  this  country.  We  must  make  allowance,  as  I  believe, 
for  some  mistakes  committed  by  the  founders  of  the  Consti 
tution  under  the  influence  of  European  prejudices,  especially 
the  institution  of  an  elective  President,  as  the  republican 
counterpart  of  a  king ;  which,  though  it  has  accidentally 
been  of  great  service  in  this  extremity,  by  giving  the  nation 
a  sort  of  constitutional  dictator,  is,  under  ordinary  circum 
stances,  a  dangerous  stimulant  to  senseless  faction  and  per 
sonal  ambition.  We  must  make  allowance  for  the  turbid 
tide  of  wretchedness  and  ignorance  which  is  poured  into  the 
American  community  by  the  government  of  this  country, 
and  with  which,  I  think,  candor  must  allow  that  American 
institutions  have  dealt  wonderfully  well.  We  must  make 


12  A  LETTER   TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE 

allowance  for  the  want  of  that  experience  from  which  we 
received  many  a  severe  and  chastening  lesson  before  our 
political  character  was  moulded,  and  which  the  Americans 
are  now  undergoing,  for  the  first  time,  in  a  stern  form. 
Above  all,  we  must  make  allowance  for  the  presence  of 
Slavery,  shooting  moral  and  political  poison  through  every 
vein  of  the  State  ;  and  for  the  influence  of  the  fell  alliance 
between  the  Slave-owning  Aristocracy  of  the  South  and 
the  Democratic  party  in  the  North, — a  tyranny,  deliver 
ance  from  which  would  be  well  purchased  even  at  the  price 
of  a  civil  war.  No  doubt  there  have  been  great  evils  and 
gross  absurdities  in  American  politics.  There  has  been 
factiousness,  though,  perhaps,  scarcely  greater  than  that  of 
our  own  political  parties,  under  their  historic  and  aristo 
cratic  leaders,  in  the  matter  of  Parliamentary  Reform  ;  there 
has  been  corruption,  though,  I  fear,  not  worse  than  there 
was  in  our  own  legislature,  when  the  holders  of  political 
power,  peers  as  well  as  commoners,  were  selling  their  sup 
port  to  railroads ;  there  has  been  a  flux  of  Parliamentary 
rhetoric,  less  refined,  certainly,  and  possibly  less  instructive, 
than  the  debates  of  our  own  House  of  Commons ;  there  has 
been  demagogism  of  a  very  repulsive  kind,  though,  if  it 
were  not  an  ungracious  task,  it  would  be  easy  to  show,  by 
examples  on  this  side  of  the  water,  that  aristocracies  have 
their  demagogues  as  well  as  mobs.  As  to  journalism,  the 
New  York  Herald  is  always  kept  before  our  eyes ;  but  the 
New  York  Herald  is  not  the  American  press  :  and  I  most 
firmly  believe  that  neither  this  nor  any  other  American 
journal  ever  pandered  to  the  violence  of  the  rowdies  more 
vilely,  either  in  point  of  virulence  or  mendacity,  than  a 
great  English  journal  has  pandered  to  the  hatred  of  America 
among  the  upper  classes  of  this  country  during  the  present 
war.  Some  of  us  at  least  have  been  taught  by  what  we 
have  lately  seen  not  to  shrink  from  an  extension  of  the  suf- 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  13 

frage,  if  the  only  bad  consequence  of  that  measure  of  jus 
tice  would  be  a  change  in  government  from  the  passions 
of  a  privileged  class  to  the  passions  of  the  people. 

After  all,  the  American  Commonwealth  has,  in  part  at 
least,  solved  a  great  problem  for  humanity.  The  full  rights 
of  citizenship  have  been  conferred  on  a  whole  people  ;  a 
real  community  has  been  called  into  being :  and  yet  order 
and  property  are,  as  the  rapid  increase  of  wealth  proves, 
at  least  tolerably  secure.  American  institutions  have  re 
ceived  that  which  is  the  best  practical  stamp  of  excellence, 
—  the  loyal  attachment  of  a  perfectly  free  people  ;  and  we 
have  learned  what,  considering  the  doubtful  aspect  of  polit 
ical  affairs  in  Europe,  all  who  are  unbiassed  by  class  preju 
dices  will  be  glad  to  learn,  that  society  may  repose  on  liberty 
as  a  sure  foundation,  and  that  the  people,  when  moderately 
educated,  will  obey  authority  which  they  have  themselves 
bestowed,  and  reverence  laws  which  they  have  themselves 
enacted.  The  American  Government  calls  upon  its  citizens 
for  the  tribute  of  their  blood ;  and  that  tribute  is  not  with 
held.  The  charge  of  carrying  on  the  war  with  Irish  and 
German  mercenaries  is  cast  upon  the  Federals  by  an  aristoc 
racy  whose  armies  have  been  filled  both  with  Irish  decoyed 
into  an  alien  service,  and  with  mercenary  Germans  bought 
like  cattle  for  the  shambles.  But  the  commissariat  and  the 
military  hospitals  of  the  North  are  of  themselves  enough  to 
show  that  the  war  is  not  being  waged  with  vile  and  merce 
nary  lives.  If  you  wish  to  know  the  signs  of  a  war  waged 
with  vile  and  mercenary  lives,  read,  with  attention  to  the 
hospital  and  commissariat  details,  the  military  history  of 
the  European  powers,  —  of  Austria,  of  Russia,  even  of  Eng 
land,  till  something  of  a  democratic  spirit  arose  and  enforced 
regard  for  the  soldier  as  well  as  for  the  general.  Recollect 
the  treatment  of  our  sailors  which  brought  on  the  mutiny  of 
the  Nore.  The  American  soldiers  are  highly  paid,  no  doubt ; 


14  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF  THE 

but  wages  in  their  country  are  very  high,  and  they  are  fight 
ing  without  medals  or  ribbons,  and  without  the  lash.  There 
has  been  a  good  deal  of  drafting  ;  but  there  are  also  a  great 
many  volunteers :  and,  on  the  whole,  the  armies  are,  to  a 
great  extent,  citizen  armies,  such  as  no  Government  not 
deeply  rooted  in  the  affections  of  the  people  could  have  at 
its  command. 

Military  power  is  commonly  thought  a  great  test  —  by 
some  the  greatest  test  —  of  the  excellence  of  political  insti 
tutions.  If  this  be  so,  American  institutions  must  be  entitled 
to  some  respect.  For  I  believe  no  nation  in  history  has 
ever,  by  its  own  resources,  kept  armies  so  large,  so  well  ap 
pointed,  and  so  well  supplied,  for  so  long  a  time  in  the  field. 
Nor  has  there  been  any  signal  break  down,  like  that  of  Bal 
aclava,  in  the  military  administration,  though  the  scale  of 
operations  has  been  so  colossal,  and  the  field  of  war  so  vast. 
It  is  true  that  private  zeal  has  come  to  the  aid  of  the  Govern 
ment,  especially  in  the  hospital  department ;  but  this  is  a 
part,  and  a  very  striking  part,  of  the  political  system ;  and 
you  will  observe  that  in  this  case  it  is  loyal  co-operation,  not 
ambitious  and  disloyal  rivalry  like  the  Crimean  Fund  of  the 
Times.  Military  skill  and  discipline  are  not  created  in  a  day 
among  a  people  devoted  to  peaceful  industry,  and  brought 
up  in  a  freedom  and  equality  which  unfit  them  for  the  com 
mand  and  the  obedience  of  the  camp.  But  these  qualities 
seem  to  have  arisen  with  reasonable  speed.  I  doubt  whether 
Europe  could  show  a  nobler  soldier  in  any  point  of  military 
character  or  duty  than  General  Grant,  who  declines  to  come 
forward  for  the  Presidency  against  Mr.  Lincoln,  because,  if 
he  did  so,  he  would  be  placed  for  six  months  in  a  position 
of  rivalry  towards  his  superior  in  command.  With  Meade, 
Rosecranz,  Banks,  Thomas,  Sherman,  Grierson,  Gilmore, 
Dahlgren,  Farragut,  and  others  who  could  be  named,  little 
fault  is  to  be  found :  and  how  many  great  commanders  did 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  15 

England  produce  under  the  aristocratic  system,  during  the 
first  five  years  of  the  Revolutionary  war?  The  practical 
result  is  that  half  of  the  task  which  European  soldiers  and 
statesmen  pronounced  impossible  has  been  accomplished, 
and  the  remainder  brought  at  least  within  the  limits  of  pos 
sibility.  So  far  I  think  you  must  go  with  me.  I  do  not  ex 
pect  you  to  go  with  me  in  saying  that  the  nation  as  a  whole 
—  particular  cases  of  misconduct,  failure,  or  folly  being  set 
aside  —  has  shown  during  this  struggle,  at  least  during  the 
latter  part  of  it,  and  since  adversity  has  laid  her  chastening 
and  elevating  hand  upon  the  people,  the  true,  though  rugged 
lineaments  of  greatness.  It  has  risen  after  terrible  defeat 
elastic  and  indomitable.  In  its  darkest  hour,  though  its  lan 
guage,  like  ours,  was  querulous  and  desponding,  it  has  not 
lost  confidence  in  itself.  It  has  not  lost  even  a  kind  of  grim 
good  humor,  the  sign  of  a  strong  heart.  It  has  wisely  stood 
by  its  Government,  though  its  Government  was  not  always 
wise ;  and  has  not  passed  votes  of  want  of  confidence  against 
Ministers  just  struggling  out  of  their  early  difficulties  in  the 
middle  of  a  war.  It  has  quelled  party  spirit,  strong  as  the 
party  spirit  there  is,  in  face  of  the  common  enemy,  with  a  com 
pleteness  which  fills  its  enemies  here  with  impotent  and  ridic 
ulous  rage.  It  has  gone  forward,  or  is  now  going  forward,  and 
bearing  its  Government  forward  with  it,  as  one  man,  with  a 
unity  which  I  believe  has  scarcely  ever  been  equalled  in  his 
tory,  except  perhaps  in  the  case  of  the  French  Republic, 
where  it  was  produced  by  Terror.  We  have  always  been 
told  that  the  men  of  intellect  and  refinement  in  America  stood 
aloof  from  politics  in  sullen  disaffection :  but  during  this  strug 
gle  they  have  equalled  or  surpassed  the  rest  of  the  community 
in  devotion  to  the  common  cause,  and  to  the  "  rail-splitter " 
who  is  its  constitutional  chief.  The  President  himself  was 
chosen  out  of  the  mass  by  the  ordinary  method  of  election, 
not  called  forth  to  meet  a  terrible  emergency ;  yet  he  has 


16  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF  THE 

met  the  most  terrible  of  all  emergencies  with  sense  and  self- 
possession,  as  well  probably  on  the  whole  as  it  would  have 
been  met  by  any  European  sovereign  or  statesman  whom 
you  could  name.  Military  merit,  whether  of  the  President's 
party,  or,  as  in  the  cases  of  Grant  and  McClellan,  of  the 
party  opposed  to  his,  has  been  promptly  recognized  and 
heartily  supported.  No  commander  has  been  removed  till 
he  had  really  failed,  in  which  case  commonwealths  consider 
the  safety  of  the  soldier  as  well  as  the  feelings  of  the  gen 
eral  :  and  (which  is  a  very  significant  and  noble  trait)  those 
who  have  been  removed,  after  failure,  from  supreme  com 
mand,  have  for  the  most  part  continued  to  serve  the  govern 
ment  of  their  country  loyally,  cheerfully,  and  well,  in  a  sub 
ordinate  position.  Personal  ambition  and  personal  rivalry 
have  in  the  main  been  held  in  check  by  the  public  good ; 
and  the  cause  and  the  commonwealth  have  been  supreme. 
At  the  outset  there  was  a  frightful  amount  both  of  corrup 
tion  and  of  treason :  but,  as  it  seems  to  me,  both  have  a  good 
deal  abated  as  the  struggle  has  gone  on,  and  as  the  face  of 
the  people  has  grown  sterner.  All  wars  breed  contractors ; 
and  if  you  wish  to  see  that  commercial  selfishness  and  cov- 
etousness  are  not  confined  to  America,  you  have  only  to  look 
at  the  great  English  shipbuilders,  who  are  ready  to  plunge 
their  country  into  a  dishonorable  war  rather  than  lose  a  cus 
tomer  and  forego  the  addition  of  a  few  thousands  to  their 
already  enormous  wealth.  Great  emergencies  bring  out 
without  disguise  all  that  is  noble  and  all  that  is  base  in 
man:  and  the  baseness  is  apt  to  appear  first. 

The  worst  part  of  the  case,  and  that  of  which  the  aspect  is 
in  all  respects  most  sinister,  undoubtedly  is  the  finance ;  as  to 
which  it  can  only  be  said  that  the  burden  laid  upon  posterity 
is  not  so  heavy,  especially  when  regard  is  had  to  the  bound 
less  resources  of  the  country,  as  that  which  has  been  laid  by 
other  Governments  for  objects  in  which  posterity  had  infi- 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  17 

nitely  less  concern  ;  and  that  the  nation  will  probably  be  helped 
through  this,  as  it  has  been  helped  through  other  difficulties, 
by  the  strong  sense  of  a  common  interest  which  pervades  all 
its  members,  and  by  the  cordiality  with  which,  at  need,  it 
supports  a  Government  which  is  not  separate  from  it  and 
above  it,  but  an  embodiment  of  itself. 

If  you  do  not  go  with  me  in  thinking  that  the  Americans 
have  shown  military  greatness,  still  less,  I  fear,  will  you  go 
with  me  in  thinking  that  their  attachment  to  freedom  has 
stood  the  strain  of  civil  war.  You  are  probably  convinced 
that  liberty  has  given  way  either  to  an  anarchy  or  to  a 
tyranny,  though  you  scarcely  know  to  which.  The  corre 
spondent  of  the  Times,  as  that  journal  assures  us,  has  been 
living  under  a  reign  of  terror  unparalleled  in  history ;  unpar 
alleled  certainly,  since  under  no  previous  reign  of  terror  has 
a  man  been  able  to  publish,  with  perfect  freedom  and  in  per 
fect  safety,  the  most  violent  and  calumnious  denunciations  of 
the  terrorist  Government.  The  tacit  consent  of  the  nation 
has  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  President  extraordinary 
powers  for  the  suppression  of  the  treason  with  which,  at  first, 
the  North  swarmed,  while  the  enemy  was  at  the  gates  of  the 
capital.  Those  powers  have,  in  some  cases,  been  arbitrarily 
used.  But,  generally  speaking,  personal  liberty  has  been 
secure  to  a  degree  unequalled,  I  venture  to  assert,  in  so  fear 
ful  an  extremity ;  to  a  greater  degree  than  it  was  here 
under  Pitt,  in  an  extremity  far  less  fearful :  to  as  great  a 
degree,  to  say  the  least,  as  it  is  now  under  the  Italian  Gov 
ernment,  which,  under  the  pressure  of  similar  necessity,  has 
assumed  similar  powers,  and  is  in  like  manner  charged  with 
the  most  tyrannical  atrocities  by  the  enemies  of  the  Italian 
cause,  and  the  friends  of  the  Bourbon  despotism  and  its 
dungeons.  The  tyrant  Lincoln,  though  "  worse  than  Robes 
pierre,"  will  very  likely  be  re-elected  President  by  the  free 
suffrages  (you  will  scarcely  deny  that  they  are  free)  of  the 


18  A  LETTER  TO   A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF  THE 

oppressed  people,  or  of  so  many  of  them  as  have  survived  his 
guillotine.  The  exercise  of  political  rights  in  all  the  States 
not  under  military  occupation  has  been  unrestrained  ;  the  best 
proof  of  which  is,  that  at  one  time  the  elections  went  very 
much  against  the  Government.  As  to  the  Constitution,  it 
has  never  been  in  danger  for  a  moment,  except  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Southern  party  here,  whose  wishes  fathered  the  strange 
thought  that  McClellan  of  all  men  in  the  world  was  going  to 
play  the  part  of  Bonaparte ;  and  the  disappointment  of  all 
such  expectations,  when  they  had  been  so  confidently  ex 
pressed,  and  seemed  so  well  warranted  by  the  analogy  of 
European  history,  must  be  taken  as  a  proof  that,  in -the  judg 
ment  of  its  enemies,  the  love  of  liberty  among  the  Americans 
is  strong,  and  capable  of  resisting  forces  which  have  ship 
wrecked  the  liberties  of  other  nations.  The  truth  is,  that 
beneath  the  troubled  and  unhealthy  surface  of  general  politics 
there  has  always  been  at  work  the  quiet  and  healthy  influence 
of  the  local  institutions,  which  have  really  formed  the  polit 
ical  character  of  the  people.  There  has  been  no  tendency  up 
to  this  time  to  lapse  into  sabre  sway;  the  soldiers  have 
retained  apparently  all  the  sentiments  of  citizens ;  and  the 
President  Commander-in-Chief  has  grasped  at  the  first  op 
portunity  of  restoring  civil  government  in  Louisiana  and  the 
other  States  won  from  the  Confederates  ;  a  proceeding  for 
which  he  is,  of  course,  denounced  by  those  who  had  just 
before  been  railing  at  him  for  attempting,  as  they  said,  to 
overthrow  civil  government,  and  to  rule  by  the  sword.  But 
he  has  probably  learnt  by  this  time  that  it  is  vain  for  him  to 
aspire  to  the  approval  of  the  editor  of  the  Times,  and  that  he 
must  look  for  the  sanction  of  his  measures  to  his  conscience 
and  his  country.  And  the  name  of  the  editor  of  the  Times 
reminds  me  that  the  anarchical  despotism  of  the  American 
press,  of  which  we  have  heard  so  much,  has  proved  not  to  be 
above  reasonable  control.  We  have  seen  nothing  like  the 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  19 

Times' s  expedition  to  Sebastopol,  or  the  editor's  letter  to  Sir 
Charles  Napier,  ordering  him  to  attack  a  fortress  which  was 
pronounced  impregnable  by  the  most  daring  of  living  seamen. 
The  generals  have  also  been  allowed,  feverishly  anxious  as 
the  people  were  for  news,  to  put  a  tolerable  check  on  the 
revelations  of  newspaper  correspondents.  This  ungovern 
able  nation  has  shown  at  need  strong  instincts  of  government 
and  sufficient  powers  of  self-control.  I  see  no  reason  for  dis 
claiming  kinship  with  these  people.  So  far  as  I  can  discern, 
they  are  true  Anglo-Saxons  in  a  burning  vessel,  between  sea 
and  fire,  fiercely  agitated,  of  course,  but  still  masters  of  them 
selves. 

Perhaps  nothing  has  practically  done  the  Americans  more 
harm,  in  the  opinion  of  this  country,  than  the  want  of  taste 
shown  in  their  documents  and  speeches.  When  men  are 
fiercely  excited,  their  language  is  apt  to  correspond  to  their 
emotions ;  and  the  postures  of  a  nation  wrestling  for  life  are 
not  likely  to  be  regulated  by  the  rules  of  grace.  Besides 
this,  however,  taste  is  the  prerogative  of  high  education,  such 
as  falls  to  the  lot,  even  in  this  country,  of  the  wealthier 
class  alone :  and  the  education  of  the  Americans  is  notori 
ously  rather  general  than  high.  Their  energies  hitherto 
have  been  employed  in  reclaiming  a  vast  wilderness,  and 
laying  the  solid  foundations  on  which  we  have  no  reason  to 
doubt  that  a  graceful  superstructure  will  hereafter  be  reared. 
We  have  no  reason  to  doubt  this,  I  say,  since  already  there 
exists  —  not  indeed  in  the  Slave  States,  which  in  this  respect 
seem  hopelessly  barbarous,  but  in  the  Free  States  —  a  liter 
ature  of  high  value  in  all  departments,  as  well  as  eminently 
pure.  In  practical  inventions  the  Americans  are  supreme  : 
and  they  are  most  ready  to  borrow  from  us  the  fruits  of  pure 
intellect,  which  they  will  one  day  perhaps  return  with  inter 
est.  Our  great  writers,  who  look  so  coldly  on  them  now, 
and  whose  coldness  they  feel  so  keenly,  have  only  to  go 


20  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE 

among  them  to  discover  that  want  of  respect  for  intellectual 
eminence  is  not  among  their  faults.  The  beginnings  of  all 
civilization  are  deficient  in  refinement :  those  of  the  feudal 
civilization,  in  which  we  still  linger,  were  coarse  enough ; 
and  surely  it  would  be  fastidiousness  with  a  vengeance  to 
reject  or  attack  the  real  cause  of  humanity  on  the  mere 
ground  of  want  of  taste  in  its  defenders.  As  to  boastful- 
ness,  it  is  highly  offensive  and  generally  indicative  of  weak 
ness.  The  Americans  doubtless  needed  such  a  lesson  as 
they  have  received  to  cure  them  of  it,  as  well  as  of  other 
tendencies  which  are  incident  to  unalloyed  prosperity.  But 
are  we  ourselves  free  from  it  ?  Is  it  not  exactly  the  fault  of 
which  all  the  worfcl  accuses  us  ?  What  are  the  Russian  guns 
planted  before  the  towns  of  this  country  but  boastfulness ; 
and  boastfulness,  to  tell  the  truth,  of  a  rather  ignoble  kind  ? 
By  what  else  than  appeals  to  that  which,  in  the  case  of  the 
Americans,  we  should  call  boastfulness,  has  the  present  lead 
er  of  our  nation  risen  to  so  high  a  pre-eminence  above  all 
the  statesmen  of  his  time  ? 

The  experiment  which  is  being  made  in  America  for  the 
benefit,  as  it  seems  of  mankind  in  general,  (at  least  of  those 
who  have  no  particular  class  interests  and  look  only  to  the 
general  good,)  is  twofold.  The  Americans  are  trying  not 
only  whether  society  can  be  placed  on  a  broader,  and,  as 
most  men  would  allow,  sounder  and  juster,  basis  than  that  of 
opulence  ruling  over  pauperism  ;  but  whether  religion,  when 
deprived  of  the  support  of  state  authority  (a  support  which 
you  must  see  is  beginning  to  prove  not  adamantine),  can  rest 
securely  on  free  conviction.  Whether  this  part  of  the  exper 
iment  has  succeeded  or  failed,  is  a  question  far  too  large  to  be 
dealt  with  here.  It  is  clear  that  religion,  though  free,  re 
tains  its  hold  upon  the  nation.  The  voluntary  payments  for 
the  maintenance  of  churches  exceed  in  amount  the  revenues 
of  the  richest  establishment  in  the  world.  There  is  a  good 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  21 

deal  of  religious  zeal,  combined,  if  De  Tocqueville  may  be 
trusted,  with  full  social  toleration.  Theological  questions  ex 
cite  great  interest ;  and  the  theology  of  the  Americans,  if 
less  learned  than  ours,  and  inferior  in  literary  qualities,  is 
more  robust,  grapples  more  vigorously  with  great  questions, 
and  is  therefore  more  likely  in  the  end  to  lead  to  truth. 
Appeals  are  made  in  extremity  to  the  religion  of  the  Amer 
ican  people  —  and  even,  in  spite  of  the  diversity  of  sects,  to 
its  common  religion  —  as  confidently  and  with  as  much  suc 
cess  as  to  ours.  The  conflict  between  religious  principles 
and  material  objects  in  a  great  commercial  nation  is  severe ; 
but  though  we  are  far  removed  from  the  days  of  the  Puritan 
fathers  and  their  "  plantation  religious,"  it  cannot  be  said 
that  religious  principles  have  as  yet  succumbed. 

The  best  index,  after  all,  of  the  influence  of  religion,  is 
the  national  character:  and  the  severest  tests  of  national 
character  are  pestilence  and  civil  war.  All  civil  war  is 
horrible.  But  I  confidently  assert  that  this  civil  war  has  so 
far  been,  on  the  part  of  the  North,  without  exception,  the 
most  humane  in  history.  We  scarcely  need  a  better  proof 
of  the  fact  than  the  perpetual  harping  on  the  proclamation 
of  Butler,  which,  after  all,  was  only  words,  and  would  have 
been  soon  forgotten  in  presence  of  very  bloody  deeds.  In 
our  own  civil  war,  which  was  far  more  humane  than  those 
of  Rome,  Greece,  France,  or  any  other  country  however 
civilized,  Essex,  the  finest  gentleman  as  well  as  one  of  the 
most  gallant  soldiers  of  his  time,  when  asked  by  the  Queen 
for  a  safe-conduct,  she  being  ill  after  childbirth,  answered 
her  with  an  unfeeling  jest.  I  need  not  remind  you  of  the 
atrocities  which  attended  the  storming  of  Drogheda  and 
Wexford  on  the  one  side,  and  that  of  Leicester  on  the  other. 
Excesses  have  been  committed  by  the  Federal  armies.  Ex 
cesses  are  committed  by  all  armies  in  an  enemy's  country. 
Excesses  of  the  most  horrible  kind  were  committed  even  by 


22  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF   THE 

our  own  armies  on  these  very  scenes.    Confederate  property 
has  been  destroyed  by  Federals  on  land,  while  Federal  prop 
erty  was  being  destroyed,  and  in  a  way  peculiarly  barbarous 
and   exasperating,   by   the    Confederates   at    sea.       These 
ravages,  and  expressions  of  ferocious  hatred,  for  which,  I  . 
think,  I  could  find  you  parallels  not  excused  by  the  frenzy 
of  battle  on  this  side  of  the  water,  seem  to  be  the  chief  of 
fences  of  the  North.     We  have  heard  of  no  denial  of  quar 
ter,  no  maltreatment  of  Confederate  prisoners,  and  assistance 
has  been  given  without  distinction  to  the  wounded  of  both 
sides.     No  language,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  has  ever  been 
used  so  disgraceful  as  the  yell  for  "  revolutionary  energy," 
that  is,  for  indiscriminate  burning  and  massacre,  which  arose 
at  the  time  of  the  Sepoy  revolt  from  the  infuriated  and  panic- 
stricken  population  of  Calcutta.      The   Chairman  of  your 
Manchester  meeting  tells  us  that  this  is  the  most  ferocious 
war  that  has  been  waged  for  a  century.    Not  to  mention  the 
Spanish  civil  war,  in  which  the  aged  mother  of  a  chief  was 
put  to  death  and  horribly  avenged,  or  the  days  of  June  at 
Paris,  when  no  quarter  was  given,  and  poisoned  lint  was 
sent  to  the  wounded,  —  the  Irish  Rebellion  of  1798  falls 
well  within  a  century.    Read  the  account  of  the  reign  of  ter- 
rOF)  —  the  scourgings,  half-hangings,  pitch-cappings,  picket- 
ings,  rapes,  burnings,  plunderings,  massacres,  carried  on  by 
the  Anglo-Irish  aristocracy  and  their  satellites  during  the 
viceroyalty  of  Lord  Camden.    Read  it  not  in  Rebel  histories, 
but  in  the  correspondence  of  brave  and  loyal  soldiers,  such 
as  Cornwallis  and  Abercrombie,  who  turned  away  sickened 
from  the  sight,  —  and  learn  how  terrible  and  how  difficult 
to  control  are  the  passions  of  civil  war.     Butler  has  gone  un- 
censured :  so  did  Anglo-Irish  terrorists  ten  thousand  times 
more  infamous.      The  wrongs    of  the   Irish   people   were 
brought  under  the  notice  of  the  House  of  Lords ;  but  the 
House  of  Lords,  bishops  and  all,  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  23 

complaint.     The  riots  and  massacres  at  New  York  were  in 
genuously  charged  on  Northern  ferocity.     They  were  got  up 
in  the  interest  of  the  South  by  Southern  agents,  and  they 
were  perpetrated  by  Irish  rowdies,  fresh,  as  most  of  the 
rowdyism  is,  from  the  misgovernmnnt  of  other  countries.     I 
may  be  mistaken,  but  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  even  a 
certain  affection  for  the  Southerns  has  continued  to  exist  in 
the  hearts  of  the  Northerns  through  all  the  fury  of  the  fray  : 
respect  for  the  military  heroism  of  the  South  certainly  has 
not  failed.     The  chief  organ  of  your  party  proclaimed  with 
great  exultation,  that  the  hearts  of  the  Northern  women 
were  in  favor  of  the  South,  and  against  their  own  husbands 
and    brothers.      This    was    a   fiction   invented    to    gratify 
the  generous  tastes  of  the  circle   in  which  these  writers 
move ;  but  it  is  true  that  both  sexes  in  the  North  have  re 
garded  Southern  valor  as  half  their  own ;  and  this  feeling 
will  be  a  healing  influence  when  the  hour  of  reconciliation 
arrives.     That  any  blood  will  be  shed  upon   the   scaffold 
when  the  war  is  over,  that  any  policy  will  be  pursued  but 
that  of  general  amnesty  with  very  limited  exceptions  (ex 
ceptions  in  the  case  of  men  whose  ambition  has  sent  hun 
dreds  of  thousands  to  their  graves),  no  one  for  a  moment 
imagines.     And  the  absence  of  such  apprehension  is  a  strong 
proof  that  the  spirit  of  humanity  has  not  lost  its  power. 

This  estimate  of  the  American  institutions,  and  of  their 
effect  on  national  character,  as  shown  under  the  trial  of  civil 
war,  is  of  course  open  to  dispute :  it  rests  partly  on  evidences 
which  are  at  present  incomplete,  and  will  not  be  complete 
till  the  end  of  the  war.  I  do  not  expect  a  man  of  Southern 
leanings  to  accept  it  as  true.  I  only  ask  him  to  consider 
before  he  plunges  us  into  war  with  the  Federals,  whether  in 
that  storm-tost  vessel,  which  with  straining  planks  and  in 
imminent  danger  of  wreck,  holds  her  course  against  wind  and 
sea,  there  may  not  be  embarked,  as  I  firmly  believe  there  is, 


24  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE 

something  in  which  humanity  has  an  interest,  and  which  no 
man  but  a  very  narrow-minded  member  of  a  privileged 
order  or  church  would  willingly  see  perish.  I  only  ask  him 
to  consider  whether  in  the  course  of  Providence  it  may  not 
have  been  given  to  the  peasant  founders  of  New  England, 
as  well  as  to  the  followers  of  Hengist  or  Clovis,  to  open  a 
new  order  of  things,  not  without  benefit  to  large  classes  to 
whom  the  old  order  of  things  had  not  been  so  kind ;  and 
whether,  if  this  be  the  case,  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  those 
who  profit  by  the  old  order  of  things  violently  to  crush  the 
new  order,  lest  by  its  success  it  should  ultimately  imperil 
the  continuance  of  the  old,  would  not  be  rather  selfish,  and 
even  rather  unsafe. 

The  Americans,  I  fully  grant,  were  entitled  to  no  sym 
pathy  while  they  remained  accomplices  in  Slavery.  You 
might  admire  their  marvellous  energy,  industry,  and  national 
prosperity.  You  might  see  with  pleasure  the  improvement 
of  the  laborer's  condition  in  the  Free  States.  You  might 
own  that  the  desire  of  territorial  greatness,  to  which  they 
sacrificed  their  moral  greatness,  was  natural  and  almost 
universal.  You  might  hope,  and  even  feel  sure,  that  the 
day  would  come  when  they  would  find  by  bitter  experi 
ence  that  Freedom  and  Slavery  could  not  dwell  together, 
and  when,  rather  than  sink  under  that  deadly  tyranny,  they 
would  risk  the  loss  of  territorial  greatness.  You  might 
mark  that  conscience  was  not  dead  among  them,  but  lived 
and  struggled  in  a  party  which  resigned  the  hope  of  political 
power  that  it  might  be  true  to  Abolition.  But  you  could 
not  regard  them  as  representatives  of  the  rights  of  labor,  or 
of  political  freedom,  or  of  any  other  great  principle,  before 
the  world.  Now,  however,  the  day  long  foreseen  has  ar 
rived.  The  Slave-owner,  no  longer  able  to  tyrannize  under 
the  forms  of  the  Constitution,  has  appealed  to  force,  and 
Freedom  and  Slavery  are  grappling  in  mortal  struggle  for 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  25 

the  possession  of  the  New  World.  In  the  sufferings  of  the 
war  the  Free  States  expiate  the  apostasy  of  the  past.  Take 
care  you  do  not  lead  us  into  the  same  apostasy,  and  into  as 
bitter  an  expiation. 

As  to  this  war,  no  one  was  more  opposed  to  it  at  the  out 
set  than  I  was.  I  too,  though  in  the  interest  of  the  Free 
States,  would  have  said,  Part  in  peace  ;  not  seeing,  as  the 
people  with  their  sounder  instincts  have  seen,  that  between 
nations  formed  by  a  violent  disruption,  and  divided  by  no 
natural  boundary,  there  would  be  no  peace,  but  perpetual 
hatred,  constant  wars,  and  standing  armies,  the  scourge  of 
industry  and  the  ruin  of  freedom.  I  thought  the  task  of 
subjugation  hopeless,  suicidal,  arid  therefore  criminal.  I 
knew  from  history  the  tremendous  strength  of  slave  Powers, 
in  which  the  masters  are  an  army  supplied  by  the  slaves 
with  food.  I  knew  also  the  vast  extent  of  the  country  to 
be  subjugated,  and  the  difficulties  which  it  presented  to  an 
invader.  I  knew  that  the  power  of  the  slave-owning  oli 
garchy  of  the  South  would  enforce  a  unity  in  their  councils 
and  actions,  which  the  parties  of  the  free  North  would  be 
long  in  attaining  ;  and  that  though  there  was  a  loyal  party 
in  the  South,  as  the  very  process  of  Secession  and  the  voting 
at  the  Presidential  election  proved,  the  strong  arm  of  the 
oligarch  would  put  down  all  dissent.  I  did  not  know,  for  in 
truth  we  had  never  fairly  seen,  the  power  of  a  great  and 
united  nation,  every  member  of  which  was  a  full  citizen,  and 
felt  the  common  cause  to  be  entirely  his  own.  Yet  there 
was  a  precedent  in  history  which  might  in  some  measure 
have  furnished  a  key  to  the  probable  result.  We  are  all 
taking  on  this  occasion  nearly  the  same  side  which  we 
should  have  taken  in  our  own  civil  war  in  the  time  of 
Charles  I.,  excepting  perhaps  a  part  of  the  shopkeepers, 
who  in  those  days  had  strong  convictions,  but  who  in  these 
clays  have  no  very  strong  convictions,  and  are  led  to  take 

2          • 


26  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF  THE 

the  side  of  the  South  because  they  fancy  it  to  be  genteel. 
That  civil  war  was  marked  in  its  course  by  nearly  the  same 
vicissitudes  as  this.  The  Commons,  superior  in  numbers,  in 
wealth,  and  the  material  of  war,  fell  with  overweening  con 
fidence  on  the  Cavaliers.  But  the  Cavaliers  had  at  first  the 
advantage  in  military  spirit  and  in  the  habit  of  command, 
while  the  retainers  whom  they  brought  into  the  field  were 
better  trained  to  obey.  Edgehill  was  not  unlike  Bull's  Run. 
One  wing  of  the  Parliamentary  army  galloped  off  the  field 
without  striking  a  blow ;  and  Clarendon  declares  that,  though 
the  battle  began  on  an  autumn  afternoon,  runaways,  and  not 
only  common  soldiers,  but  officers  of  rank,  were  in  St.  Alban's 
before  dark.  Then  followed  despondency  as  deep  as  the 
previous  self-confidence  had  been  high  and  boastful.  Over 
tures  were  made  to  the  King,  and  Pym  and  Hampden,  the 
"  rabid  fanatics  "  of  that  day,  had  great  difficulty  in  prevent 
ing  a  surrender.  Nor  was  treason  wanting,  in  camp  or 
council,  to  complete  the  parallel.  Still  darker  days  fol 
lowed  ;  and  when  the  King  sat  down  before  Gloucester,  the 
friends  of  "  Slavery,  Subordination,  and  Government,"  at 
that  time,  must  have  felt  as  sure  of  victory  as  they  did  when 
General  Lee  was  approaching  the  heights  of  Gettysburg. 
But  our  Puritan  Fathers  had  the  root  of  greatness  in  them ; 
and  therefore  they  were  chastened,  not  crushed,  by  adver 
sity.  Necessity  brought  the  right  men  to  the  front,  and  gave 
the  ascendency  in  council  to  those  who  were  fighting  for  a 
principle,  and  who  knew  their  own  minds.  The  armies, 
which  at  first  were  filled  with  tapsters  and  serving-men, 
were  recruited  from  the  yeomen,  of  whom,  with  their  small 
estates,  there  were  plenty  in  Old  England ;  but  who,  since 
the  soil  of  Old  England  has  become  the  property  of  a  few 
wealthy  men,  have  found  another  home  in  the  New.  The 
moderate  commanders  who  did  not  mean  to  win,  gave  way 
to  commanders  who  did.  Treason  was  trodden  out  and 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  27 

disunion  quelled.  There  was  no  more  boastfulness,  no 
more  despondency,  but  stern  resolution.  The  Commons 
measured  their  work,  settled  down  to  it,  and  won.  We 
deem  that  struggle  heroic,  and  feel  a  mournful  pride  in  look 
ing  back  on  it :  but  you  cannot  be  familiar  with  its  history, 
if  you  do  not  know  that  it  had  its  wicked,  its  mean,  even  its 
ridiculous,  as  well  as  its  heroic,  phase  ;  or  think  it  impossible 
that,  when  removed  by  the  lapse  of  centuries  from  close 
inspection,  the  struggle  which  we  are  now  watching  may 
appear  quite  as  grand. 

It  was  reasonable  too,  I  think,  to  feel  great  misgivings  — 
I  know  that  I  at  least  felt  them  —  as  to  the  object  of  the  war 
and  its  issue,  supposing  the  North  to  be  victorious.  I  ex 
pected,  and  the  language  of  the  North  warranted  us  in 
expecting,  reconstruction  with  Slavery,  and  the  restoration 
of  that  baneful  tyranny,  inexpressibly  worse  than  any  num 
ber  of  disruptions.  Indeed,  I  am  quite  ready  to  admit  that 
it  was  only  in  the  course  of  the  war,  and  as  the  fact  that 
Slavery  was  the  incorrigible  source  of  disunion,  as  well  as 
of  all  other  political  and  social  evil,  was  brought  home  to 
them,  that  the  majority  of  the  Northerns  resolved  on  its 
destruction,  and  that  Emancipation  became  the  policy  of  the 
nation.  But  that  Emancipation  is  now  the  policy  of  the 
nation,  —  even  of  old  Democrats  such  as  General  Grant,  — 
there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever.  Every  additional  year 
of  war  places  reconstruction  on  any  basis  but  that  of  imme 
diate  or  speedy  Abolition,  more  completely  out  of  the  ques 
tion.  Nothing  but  the  victory  of  the  Slave-owners  can  save 
Slavery  from  destruction. 

I  will  add  to  these  reasons  for  having  been  originally 
opposed  to  the  war,  the  very  deep  horror  with  which  all  I 
ever  heard  or  read  has  filled  me  of  wars  in  general,  and  the 
strong  sense  which  I  have  of  the  fact,  that,  under  the  modern 
system  of  standing  armies,  those  who  to  gratify  their  own 


28  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE 

passions  plunge  nations  into  wars,  and  who  swagger  about 
national  courage  and  national  honor,  do  not  risk  their  own 
lives,  but  sit  safe  at  home,  and  bravely  send  poor  peasants, 
ignorant  of  the  quarrel  and  utterly  unconcerned  in  it,  to 
bloody  graves,  —  a  fact  which  I  beg  you  to  bear  in  mind 
with  reference  to  warlike  members  of  our  own  Legislature, 
and  clergymen  who  wish  to  embroil  us  with  the  North,  as 
well  as  with  reference  to  the  warlike  orators  and  preachers 
of  the  United  States.  But  the  war  has  been  begun,  and  is 
now  probably  drawing  towards  its  close,  whatever  its  des 
tined  issue  may  be.  We  are  not  responsible  for  it.  The 
only  question  is  whether  we  shall  interfere,  and  (if  Slavery 
is  wrong)  on  the  wrong  side. 

The  grounds  upon  which  the  Southern  Association  ap 
peals  to  this  country  are  succinctly  set  forth  in  the  Address  to 
the  Public,  which  is  evidently  the  work  of  a  careful  as  well 
as  a  skilful  hand.  Let  us  pass  them  very  briefly  in  review ; 
always  remembering  that  the  present  object  is  practical,  and 
that  it  is  not  to  dissuade  you  from  sympathizing  with  the 
insurgent  aristocracy  of  the  Southern  States,  which  would 
neither  be  a  very  hopeful  nor  a  very  fruitful  undertaking, 
but  to  inquire  whether  you  have  any  rational  pretence  for 
calling  upon  England  to  deviate  from  the  principle  of  not 
interfering,  for  class  or  party  purposes,  in  the  internal  revo 
lutions  of  other  countries,  to  which  we  have  pretty  steadily 
of  late  years  adhered,  after  trying  the  opposite  course,  and 
finding  that  it  cost  us  dear. 

"SOUTHERN    INDEPENDENCE     ASSOCIATION 
OF  LONDON. 

"  Public  opinion  is  becoming  enlightened  upon  the  disruption  of  the 
late  United  States,  and  upon  the  character  of  the  war  which  has  been 
raging  on  the  American  continent  for  nearly  three  years.  British  sub 
jects  were  at  h'rst  hardly  able  to  realize  a  federation  of  States  each  in 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  29 

itself  possessed  of  sovereign  attributes ;  while  deriving  their  views  of 
American  history  from  New  York  and  New  England,  they  ascribed  the 
secession  of  the  Southern  States  to  pique  at  a  lost  election,  and  to  fear 
for  the  continuance  of  an  institution  peculiarly  distasteful  to  English 
men.  Assurances  were  rife  from  those  quarters  that  the  movement 
was  the  conspiracy  of  a  few  daring  men,  and  that  a  strong  Union  senti 
ment  existed  in  the  seceding  States,  which  would  soon  assert  its  exist 
ence  under  stress  of  the  war. 

"  Gradually  the  true  causes  of  the  disruption  have  made  themselves 
more  and  more  manifest.  The  long-widening  and  now  insuperable 
divergence  of  character  and  interests  between  the  two  sections  of  the 
former  Union  has  been  made  palpable  by  the  facts  of  the  gigantic  strug 
gle.  Their  wisdom  in  council,  their  endurance  in  the  field,  and  the 
universal  self-sacrifice  which  has  characterized  their  public  and  their 
private  life,  have  won  general  sympathy  for  the  Confederates  as  a 
people  worthy  of,  and  who  have  earned,  their  independence. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  the  favorable  judgment  which  Englishmen  had 
long  cherished  as  a  duty  towards  that  portion  of  the  United  States 
which  they  imagined  most  to  resemble  the  Mother  Country  has  met 
with  many  rude  shocks  from  the  spectacles  which  have  been  revealed  in 
that  land  of  governmental  tyranny,  corruption  in  high  places,  ruthless- 
ness  in  war,  untruthfulness  of  speech,  and  causeless  animosity  towards 
Great  Britain.  At  the  same  time  the  Southerners,  who  had  been  very 
harshly  judged  in  this  country,  have  manifested  the  highest  national 
characteristics,  to  the  surprise  and  admiration  of  all. 

"  Public  men  are  awakening  to  the  truth  that  it  is  both  useless  and 
mischievous  to  ignore  the  gradual  settlement  of  Central  North  America 
into  groups  of  States,  or  consolidated  nationalities,  each  an  independent 
Power.  They  feel  that  the  present  attempt  of  the  North  is  in  manifest 
opposition  to  this  law  of  natural  progress,  and  they  see  that  the  South 
can  never  be  reunited  with  the  North  except  as  a  conquered  and  garri 
soned  dependency ;  whilst  the  Northern  States,  if  content  to  leave  their 
former  partners  alone,  are  still  in  possession  of  all  the  elements  of 
great  and  growing  national  power  and  wealth. 

"  Our  commercial  classes  are  also  beginning  to  perceive  that  our  best 
interests  will  be  promoted  by  creating  a  direct  trade  with  a  people  so 
enterprising  as  the  Confederates,  inhabiting  a  land  so  wide  and  so 
abundant  in  the  richest  gifts  of  Providence,  and  anxious  to  place  them- 


30  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE 

selves  in  immediate  connection  with  the  manufacturers  and  consumers 
of  Europe. 

"  In  short,  the  struggle  is  now  felt  to  be,  according  to  Earl  Russell's 
pregnant  expression,  one  for  independence  on  the  part  of  the  South, 
and  for  empire  on  the  part  of  the  North ;  for  an  independence,  on  the 
one  hand,  which  it  is  equitable  for  themselves  and  desirable  for  the 
world  they  should  achieve ;  for  an  empire,  on  the  other  hand,  which  is 
only  possible  at  the  price  of  the  first  principles  of  Federal  Republi 
canism,  and  whose  establishment  by  fire  and  sword,  and  at  a  countless 
cost  of  human  life  on  both  sides,  would  be  the  ruin  of  the  Southern 
States.  These,  surely,  are  reasons  which  invoke  the  intervention  of 
other  Powers,  if  intervention  be  possible,  in  the  cause  of  common 
humanity. 

"  Therefore,  not  in  enmity  to  the  North,  but  sympathizing  with  the 
Confederates,  the  Southern  Independence  Association  of  London  has 
been  formed,  to  act  in  concert  with  that  which  is  so  actively  and  use 
fully  at  work  in  Manchester.  It  will  serve  as  the  rallying-point  in 
London  of  all  who  believe  that  the  dignity  and  interest  of  Great  Britain 
will  best  be  consulted  by  speedily  and  cheerfully  recognizing  a  brave 
people  sprung  from  ourselves,  speaking  our  language,  heretofore  organ 
ized  for  internal  government  into  well-established  sovereignties,  now 
confederated  under  a  stable  Central  Administration,  and  claiming 
recognition,  in  accordance  with  those  principles  of  British  policy  which 
have  always  been  more  inclined  to  help  the  oppressed  than  to  justify 
and  abet  the  oppressor,  and  ever  to  respect  a  unanimous  national  will. 

"  The  precedents  of  the  separation  of  Belgium  and  of  Greece,  and  of 
the  reconstruction  of  Italy,  exist  as  modern  instances  to  show  that 
Great  Britain  is  always  ready  to  acknowledge,  rather  than  to  resist,  a 
national  uprising.  It  would  be  difficult  to  show  that  any  of  these 
countries  was  as  well  organized  for  self-government  as  the  Confederate 
States  have  now  been  for  nearly  three  years.  Unlike  them,  each  State 
of  the  Confederacy  had  its  own  constitution  and  government  complete 
and  in  working  order,  and  had  ever  since  gone  on  acting  upon  them 
without  change  or  difficulty. 

"  The  Association  will  also  devote  itself  to  the  cultivation  of  friendly 
feelings  between  the  people  of  Great  Britain  and  of  the  Confederate 
States ;  and  it  will,  in  particular,  steadily  but  kindly  represent  to  the 
Southern  States  that  recognition  by  Europe  must  necessarily  lead  to  a 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  31 

revision  of  the  system  of  servile  labor  unhappily  bequeathed  to  them 
by  England,  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  so  as  to  combine 
the  gradual  extinction  of  slavery  with  the  preservation  of  property,  the 
maintenance  of  the  civil  polity,  and  the  true  civilization  of  the  Negro 
race." 

The  Committee,  the  names  of  whose  members  are  ap 
pended,  is  highly  aristocratic  in  its  character.  The  List  of 
the  Members  of  the  Association,  which  has  also  been  pub 
lished,  contains  a  large  proportion  of  men  of  title  and  family, 
whose  names  head  the  list,  and  a  good  sprinkling  of  clergy 
men,  curiously  associated  with  the  Member  for  Sheffield; 
but  it  is  not  so  strong  in  representatives  of  the  interests  of 
the  laboring  class. 

We  need  not  dwell  long  on  the  opening  paragraphs  of  the 
Address.  The  question  now  before  us  is,  not  whether 
the  struggle  ought  to  have  been  commenced,  but  whether  this 
country  ought  to  interfere  in  it.  But  even  writers  who  most 
intensely  hate  the  Federals,  and  most  violently  condemn  them 
for  persevering  with  English  tenacity,  and  in  spite  of  all  dis 
asters,  in  the  gigantic  task  which  they  had  undertaken,  allow 
that  originally  the  right  was  on  their  side,  that  Lincoln's 
election  was  perfectly  constitutional,  and  that  he  had  done  no 
single  act  to  provoke  rebellion  against  a  Government  which 
the  present  Vice-President  of  the  Confederacy  had  himself 
pronounced  to  be,  in  its  general  character,  the  most  just  and 
beneficent  in  the  world.  Your  own  Address  in  effect  con 
firms  this  judgment ;  for  it  ascribes  the  rebellion  to  a  diverg 
ence  of  character  and  interests  which  has  gradually  come  to 
light  in  the  course  of  the  struggle,  and  which  therefore  can 
hardly  have  been  its  original  justification,  much  less  a  ground 
for  condemning  the  President's  attempt  to  maintain,  as  was 
his  bounden  duty,  the  integrity  of  the  nation  constitutionally 
committed  to  his  hands.  As  to  the  power  of  secession  at 
will,  and  without  provocation,  British  subjects  might  well 


32  A  LETTER   TO   A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF  THE 

find  a  difficulty,  as  you  say  they  did,  in  realizing  a  commu 
nity  founded  on  so  singular  a  basis,  more  especially  as  the 
United  States  had  dealt  with  us,  as  well  as  with  all  other 
countries,  and  entered  into  perpetual  and  indefeasible  treaties 
with  us  as  a  single  Sovereign  Power.*  The  Constitution  con 
tained  no  article  of  the  kind,  and  you  will  scarcely  require 
us  to  believe,  though  I  have  seen  it  suggested,  that  the 
framers  were  so  fatuous  as  to  omit  the  mention  of  this  funda 
mental  right,  and  make  no  legal  provision  for  its  exercise, 
leaving  the  nation  to  the  chances  of  violent  disruption  and 
civil  war,  for  fear  of  suggesting  the  topic  to  men's  minds  ;  as 
though  (not  to  mention  the  other  absurdities  of  such  a  course) 
anything  could  be  more  suggestive  than  so  conspicuous  an 
omission.  But  even  if  a  legal  right  of  secession  existed,  this 
was  not  an  exercise  of  it.  This  was  a  conspiracy  hatched 
with  all  the  incidents  which  mark  the  proceedings  of  conspir 
ators,  and  under  circumstances  of  peculiar  perfidy  arising 
from  the  position  of  the  authors  as  the  elective  rulers  and 
guardians  of  the  state.  One  of  the  leaders  writes  to  his  con 
federate  to  suggest  secret  dealings  with  the  national  armor 
ies  for  the  purposes  of  the  plot,  and  ends  his  letter  by  de 
scribing  himself  as  a  "  candidate  for  the  first  halter."  Is  this 
the  language  of  men  preparing  to  exercise  a  legal  right  ? 
*  Some  of  your  party  seem  to  think  that  a  president  has 
not  a  right,  like  a  king,  to  put  down  unprovoked  rebellion. 
They  appear  to  regard  a  commonwealth  as  the  offspring  of 
political  crime,  in  which  no  legal  authority  can  reside.  You, 
as  a  Whig,  will  not  agree  with  them ;  more  especially  as  you 
must  see  that  no  form  of  government  but  a  commonwealth 
being  possible  under  the  conditions  of  American  society,  to 

*  If  I  understand  the  theory  rightly,  Maryland  and  Virginia  might  have 
seceded  at  will,  and  cut  off  the  capital.  A  central  State,  commanding 
indispensable  lines  of  communication,  would  thus  be  mistress  of  the  exist 
ence  of  the  nation. 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  33 

deny  that  lawful  authority  can  reside  in  such  a  Government 
would  be  to  proclaim  perpetual  anarchy  in  America.  Nor 
will  you  maintain  that  a  Government  which  had  its  origin  in 
a  just  rebellion  is  thereby  disqualified  from  putting  down 
a  rebellion  which  is  unjust.  You  know  too  well  that  our 
Government  had  its  origin  in  the  just  rebellion  of  1688. 
The  noblemen  and  clergymen  of  this  country,  in  their  pas 
sionate  hatred  of  a  free  community,  the  success  of  which  they 
suppose  to  be  fraught  with  eventual  danger  to  social  and 
ecclesiastical  privilege,  are  tearing  up  the  foundations  on 
which  not  only  all  privilege,  but  all  society  rests.  They  are 
inciting  to  treason  and  insurrection  all  sections  of  any  com 
munity  which  may  think  that  there  is  a  divergence  of  interest 
and  character  between  them  and  the  rest  of  the  nation. 
Such  a  facility  of  political  divorce  might  not  be  without  dan 
ger  to  the  union  of  the  "  Two  Nations  "  which  the  Tory 
author  of  Sibyl  has  described  as  existing  with  totally  diverg 
ent  characters  and  interests  in  this  country.  It  would  have 
warranted  the  Free  Traders  of  the  North  of  England  in 
declaring  themselves  independent  of  the  Protectionist  South: 
indeed,  according  to  the  theory  which  was  elaborately  pro 
pounded  as  a  subterfuge  for  English  morality  in  sympathiz 
ing  with  the  Slave-owners,  but  which  seems  now  to  have 
served  its  turn,  the  difference  between  the  Free  Traders 
and  the  Protectionists  was  the  great  cause  and  justification 
of  this  secession.  As  to  the  principles  on  which  the  integrity 
of  the  British  Empire  reposes,  our  aristocracy  has  given 
them  to  the  winds.  It  has  left  itself  without  the  shadow  of 
a  warrant  for  coercing  Ireland,  in  case  of  a  general  rising  in 
that  country :  and,  Heaven  knows,  in  that  case  the  diverg 
ence  of  character  and  interests,  (if  that  is  a  justification  of 
rebellion,)  is  wide  enough. 

However,  I  will  freely  admit  that  the  rebellion  was  caused 
by  a  divergence  of  character  and  interests,  not  between  the 
2*  o 


34'  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE 

mass  of  the    people  North  and   South  of  a  certain   geo 
graphical  line  (for  Western  Virginia  did  not  secede,  and 
other  Southern  districts  seceded  only  under  pressure),  but 
between  the  Slave-owners  and  the  mass  of  the  people.    This 
collision  had  long  been  foreseen  by  all  observers,  and  it  has 
come  at  last.     So  long  as  the  Slave-owners  could  command 
a  majority  in  Congress,  and  elect  a  President  of  their  own 
by  the  help  of  the  party  connected  with  them  commercially, 
or  under  their  influence  in  other  ways,  they  were  content  to 
remain  in  the  Union,  though  they  were  alarmed,  and  justly 
alarmed,  by  the  growth  of  moral  sentiment,  and  the  increas 
ing  efforts  of  the  Abolition  party  in  the  North.     But  when 
the  Republican  party  triumphed  in  the  election  of  a  Presi 
dent,  they  felt  that  the  hour  for  which  they  had  long  been 
secretly  preparing  was  come  :  they  rose  in  arms  and  dragged 
with  them  into  insurrection  the  free  laboring  population  en 
closed  within  the  limits  of  their  power.     The  danger  which 
had  long  been  threatening  Slavery  from  the  spread  of  the 
Abolition  doctrines  and  the  attitude  of  the  Abolition  party  in 
the  North,  is  the  sole   cause  of  secession  alleged  in  the 
secession  Ordinances,  and  the  sole  motive  for  secession  dis 
closed  in  the  Confederate  Constitution,  which  follows  the 
Federal  Constitution  in  all  essential  respects,  except  that  it 
includes  special  clauses  protecting,  as  a  fundamental  article  of 
the  Confederation,  the  property  of  the  master  in  the  negro 
slave,  and  removing  the  limits  which  the  Federal  law  set  to 
the  extension  of  Slavery  into  new  States.     The  insurrection 
followed  exactly  the  winding  boundary  line  of  Slavery,  pass 
ing  between  the  slave-breeding  part  of  Virginia  and  the  free- 
labor  part  of  the  same  State  ;  its  focus  was  in  the  centre  of 
Slavery,  and  its  intensity  was  graduated  in  different  parts  of 
the  insurgent  territory,  according  to  the  prevalence  of  the 
Slave  or  Free  interest.     Its  outbreak  was  attended  by  new 
developments  of  the  Slavery  doctrine,  of  the  most  startling 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  35 

kind,  and  by  apocalyptic  visions  of  a  vast  Slave  empire 
stretching  from  the  tomb  of  Washington  to  the  palaces  of 
Montezuma,  while  it  was  not  attended  by  any  new  develop 
ments  of  economical  doctrine,  or  by  any  visions  of  emanci 
pated  trade.  In  fact,  I  must  do  the  ambitious  leaders  of  the 
revolt  the  justice  to  say,  that  the  idea  of  destroying  the  ma 
jestic  fabric  of  the  Union  for  the  sake  of  a  tariff  is  more 
congenial  to  the  mercantile  genius  from  which  the  theory 
emanated  than  to  the  aspiring  spirit  of  President  Davis  or 
General  Lee. 

I  agree  with  the  Slave-owners  in  believing  that  the  Abo 
litionists  of  the  North  were  sincere,  and  that  Slavery  was  in 
real,  though  probably  not  in  immediate,  peril :  and,  if  we 
set  aside  the  immorality  of  their  institution,  I  am  not  sure 
that  self-preservation  might  not  fairly  be  pleaded  as  in  part 
an  excuse  for  what  they  have  done.  It  might  have  been 
pleaded,  perhaps,  with  more  justice  if  the  extension  of 
slavery,  as  well  as  the  maintenance  of  it  where  it  exists, 
had  not  been  part  of  their  design.  They  cast  the  die,  how 
ever,  well  knowing  that  they  staked  all  upon  the  event; 
and  they  have  not  been  sparing  of  the  lives  or  fortunes  of 
others  in  playing  out  their  game.  The  result  has  been  to 
bring  destruction,  in  all  probability,  on  what  with  a  delicacy 
of  expression  almost  Southern  you  call  "  an  institution  pecu 
liarly  distasteful  to  the  English  people."  I  hope,  indeed,  that 
the  institution  in  question  is  still  peculiarly  distasteful  to  the 
English  people,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  which  have  been  made 
in  a  great  variety  of  ways  to  reconcile  them  to  it ;  and 
therefore  I  hope,  and  am  confident,  that  the  people  will  de 
cline  your  invitation  to  interfere,  at  the  risk  of  war,  for  the 
purpose  of  saving  it  from  its  approaching  fall. 

No  doubt  the  Federals,  in  proceeding,  against  all  expec 
tation,  and,  as  I  have  before  confessed,  to  my  dismay,  to 
coerce  the  Slave-owners,  were  actuated  by  very  mixed  mo- 


36  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF   THE 

tives.  There  was  a  desire  to  prevent,  on  moral  grounds, 
the  establishment  of  a  Slave  Power,  and  to  save  the  negroes 
from  being  swept  away  into  hopeless  bondage,  of  the  sin 
cerity  of  which  the  fear  of  Abolition  which  drove  the  Slave 
owners  to  revolt  is,  as  I  said  before,  a  sufficient  proof. 
There  was  the  desire  which  all  loyal  citizens  feel  to  punish 
treason  and  put  down  unprovoked  rebellion.  There  was 
the  desire  (not,  perhaps,  altogether  wise,  but  neither  alto 
gether  unnatural,  nor  altogether  criminal)  to  preserve  the 
greatness  of  the  Union.  There  was  anger,  not  philosophic, 
but  such  as  treachery,  violence,  and  insolence  will  awaken 
in  mortal  breasts ;  there  was  mortified  vanity ;  there  was 
pique  at  the  shout  of  exultation  raised  by  the  enemies  of 
freedom  in  Europe  over  the  ruin,  as  they  thought,  of  the 
great  Commonwealth.  The  less  worthy  motives  predomi 
nated,  perhaps,  at  the  beginning  of  the  contest ;  the  worthier, 
I  think,  have  been  gradually  gaining  the  ascendency  as  it 
has  gone  on.  But  in  deciding  whether  we  shall  interfere 
on  the  side  of  the  South,  we  must  look  to  the  practical  in 
terests  of  humanity,  which  I  suppose  you  admit  to  be  on  the 
side  of  Free  Labor,  not  to  the  motives  of  the  North.  Are 
we  to  make  England  an  accomplice  in  the  creation  of  a 
great  Slave  Power,  and  in  its  future  extension  from  the  tomb 
of  Washington  to  the  palaces  of  Montezuma,  because  the 
motives  of  those  who  are  fighting  against  it  are  not  alto 
gether  unalloyed  ? 

I  have  admitted  that  there  is  a  divergence  of  character  as 
well  as  of  interest  between  the  Slave-owner  and  the  free 
laborer,  or  the  employer  of  free  labor.  The  Slave-owner 
always  has  been,  and  always  will  be,  a  despot,  incapable  of 
living  on  equal  terms  with  other  men.  But  there  is  no  di 
vergence  of  character  such  as  would  be  a  bar  to  political 
union  between  the  whites  of  the  South  who  are  not  Slave 
owners  and  their  kinsmen  (for  nobody  but  a  man  laboring 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  37 

under  rhetorical  frenzy  would  deny  that  they  are  kinsmen) 
at  the  North.  The  whites  of  the  South  have  been  taught  to 
spurn  labor  as  degraded,  and  have  themselves  been  degraded 
by  so  doing.  But  this  war,  if  I  mistake  not,  by  placing  them 
under  military  discipline,  has  raised  their  character,  and  made 
them  more  capable  of  living  under  law  ;  while  the  destruction 
of  Slavery  will  necessarily  convert  them  into  free  laborers 
of  some  kind,  or  employers  of  free  labor. 

Suppose  the  Emancipation  policy  to  be  carried  into  effect ; 
suppose  the  Slave-owning  aristocracy,  which  will  not  live 
with  freedom,  which  "  hates  everything  free,  from  free-schools 
upwards,"  to  be  abolished,  and  its  members  reduced  to  the 
level  of  citizens,  I  see,  judging  from  the  experience  of  his 
tory,  no  impediment  to  the  complete  and  permanent  restora 
tion  of  the  Union.  Though  civil  war  is  so  fierce,  its  wounds 
are  soon  healed.  People  who  must  live  together,  and  trade 
and  intermarry  with  each  other,  cannot  long  keep  up  mutual 
hatred.  Sadness  will  take  the  place  of  harsher  feelings ;  and 
in  the  present  case,  as  there  have  been  victories  on  both  sides, 
and  each  side  has  had  cause  to  respect  the  valor  of  the  other, 
the  quarrel  will  not  be  kept  alive  in  the  heart  of  the  van 
quished  by  the  rankling  sense  of  humiliation.  The  first  pa 
triotic  object,  the  first  struggle  with  a  foreign  enemy,  which 
reawakens  national  feelings,  will  probably  complete  the 
cure ;  and  neighboring  powers  must  beware  of  the  tendency 
which  has  so  often  been  shown,  to  bury  the  memory  of  civil 
in  foreign  war.  The  few  years  of  Cromwell's  Protectorate, 
though  following  a  most  bitter  and  protracted  civil  war,  and 
themselves  full  of  partial  insurrections,  plots,  and  decimations 
of  the  vanquished  party,  sufficed  to  bring  about  reconcilia 
tion  to  a  considerable  degree  among  the  great  body  of  the 
people.  Not  many  years  since,  a  part  of  the  Swiss  Confed 
eration  seceded  from  the  rest  in  the  cause  of  Jesuitism, 
\vhich  had  disturbed  the  peace  of  that  community,  as  Slavery 


38  A   LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF  THE 

has  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  Union.  The  other  cantons 
marched  upon  them,  coerced  them,  expelled  the  Jesuits,  and 
restored  the  Confederation.  Complete  reconciliation  ensued, 
and  of  that  quarrel,  I  believe,  there  is  now  no  trace. 

No  doubt  the  Union  party  in  the  South  has  for  the  time 
been  effectually  crushed  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  oligarchs ; 
but  it  does  not  follow  that  Union  sentiment  is  extinct,  or  that 
it  will  not  revive  if  the  power  of  the  oligarchy  is  overthrown. 
In  the  Southern  as  well  as  the  Northern  States,  there  pre 
vails,  Slavery  apart,  a  strong  desire  for  a  wide  and  united 
empire  as  a  source  of  strength  and  greatness.  This  desire  is 
BO  strong,  that  very  good  judges,  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
the  Southern  States,  thought  it  would  bind  the  North  and 
South  together,  in  spite  of  the  manifest  tendency  of  Slavery 
to  rend  them  asunder.  You  hold  it  to  be  for  the  interest  of 
"  your  own  dear  country  "  that  a  disruption  should  be  effect 
ed,  and  that  the  great  power  of  the  American  Common 
wealth,  which  we  choose  to  think  and  do  our  best  to  make 
hostile  to  this  country,  should  be  broken  in  two.  So  said 
the  Noble  Chairman  of  your  Manchester  meeting,  discarding 
for  a  moment  the  language  of  disinterested  sympathy  with 
the  patriotism  and  heroism  of  the  Slave-owners,  and  allowing 
a  less  romantic  but  more  natural  motive  to  appear.  I  hold 
this  motive  for  taking  the  wrong  side  in  the  greatest  moral 
struggle,  and  the  most  pregnant  with  future  good  or  evil  to 
humanity,  of  our  days,  to  be  as  baseless  as  it  is  selfish.  I 
maintain  that,  class  interests  and  class  fears  being  set  aside, 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  English  people  here  should  re 
gard  with  apprehension  the  greatness  of  the  English  people 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic ;  or  why  their  greatness 
should  not  be  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  part  of  our  own. 
But  be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  clear  that  the  final  disruption 
which  the  enemies  of  American  greatness,  for  their  purposes, 
desire  to  promote,  the  friends  of  American  greatness  will  in 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  39 

the  same  degree  desire  to  avoid :  and  that  the  Southerns  as 
well  as  the  Northerns  are  friends  to  American  greatness. 
If  you  wished  to  render  the  restoration  of  the  Union  impos 
sible,  you  should  have  been  more  cautious  in  disclosing  the 
diplomatic  object  of  your  sympathy  with  the  South. 

It  is  as  needless  as  it  would  be  odious  to  discuss  the  truth 
of  the  comparison  which  you  draw  between  the  character  of 
the  Federals  and  that  of  the  Confederates.  For  you  cannot 
seriously  expect  the  Government  to  take  a  dangerous  step 
merely  on  the  ground  of  your  personal  predilections.  It 
must  strike  you  as  singular,  that  the  line  of  demarcation 
which  separates  perfect  virtue  from  perfect  vice  should  ex 
actly  coincide  with  Slavery.  You  judge  the  conduct  and 
language  of  the  Federals  by  an  unfair  standard ;  by  the 
standard  of  nations  living  in  peace  and  tranquillity,  not  by 
the  standard  of  nations  whose  fiercest  passions  are  stirred  to 
their  depths  by  a  terrible  conflict,  and  who  are  surrounded  by 
the  atmosphere  which,  charged  with  fear,  suspicion,  false  ru 
mors,  and  wild  hopes,  hangs  over  revolutionary  war.  Name 
any  other  great  civil  war  in  history,  and,  if  its  details  remain 
to  us,  I  will  undertake  to  show  you  that  your  special  con 
demnation  of  the  Americans  is  unjust.  You  have,  more 
over,  been  prevented  by  the  intensity  of  your  prejudices 
from  noting  the  change  which  has  been  wrought  in  the  char 
acter  of  the  people  under  its  trials,  and  you  take  as  true  now 
all  that  might  have  been  true  at  the  date  of  Bull's  Run, 
when  the  Americans  were  but  just  entering  the  fiery  fur 
nace  through  which  they  have  since  passed.  And  further, 
your  accounts  of  the  untruthfulness  of  speech  and  the  other 
crimes  with  which  you  charge  a  whole  nation  of  the  same 
blood  as  our  own,  are  taken,  I  have  no  doubt,  from  a  journal 
which  has  itself,  through  the  whole  of  these  transactions, 
been  a  palmary  instance  of  untruthfulness  of  speech,  and 
of  everything  else  which  can  degrade  the  calling  of  a  pub- 


40  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF  THE 

lie  instructor.  "  Few  journalists,"  says  an  English  periodi 
cal  of  Southern  leanings,  "have  ever  incurred  greater  re 
sponsibility  than  the  New  York  correspondent  of  the  Times. 
It  is  on  his  testimony  alone  that  a  large  and  most  influential 
class  of  English  society  has  sympathized  with  the  South. 
He  has  throughout  acted  the  part  of  an  unscrupulous  ad 
vocate,  carefully  reporting  to  his  employers,  and  through 
them  to  all  England,  every  statement  and  every  fact  which 
could  create  contempt  and  disgust  against  the  conduct,  the 
principles,  and,  in  general,  the  cause  of  the  North.  He  has 
uniformly  represented  the  Federalists  as  tyrants,  marauders, 
curs  who  bought  Irishmen  and  Germans  to  fight  their  bat 
tles,  fraudulent  bankrupts,  and  odious  hypocrites.  Of  course 
he  is  not  abusive  :  *  Our  own  correspondent '  never  is ;  but 
in  a  quiet  way  he  reports  every  discreditable  fact,  every 
dirty  job,  every  harsh  or  cruel  act  in  the  conduct  of  the 
war ;  he  quotes  every  blackguard  rant  of  the  New  York 
Herald,  and  he  leaves  out  of  sight  all  that  is  heroic  or  pa 
thetic."*  The  writer  proceeds  to  show,  that,  considering 
the  difference  between  American  manners  and  ours,  the  un 
doubted  existence  of  a  great  "  blackguard  element "  in  New 
York,  the  disorder  necessarily  incident  to  an  immense  army 
raised  in  a  few  months,  and  the  unexampled  temptation  held 
out  to  jobbing  by  the  enormous  and  sudden  expenditure, 
"  nothing  could  be  easier  than  to  misrepresent  the  whole 
aspect  of  the  war,  without  saying  a  single  word  that  was  not 
either  true  or  at  all  events  attested  by  plausible  evidence." 
Not  that  the  Times  has  confined  itself  to  misrepresentation 
of  this  kind.  Its  readers  still,  I  presume,  believe,  on  its  au 
thority,  that  the  Admiralty  cases  in  the  United  States  are 
sent  to  be  tried  before  a  low  attorney  ;  and  that  Mr.  Wen 
dell  Philips  has  withdrawn  his  son  •from  the  conscription, 
though  Mr.  Philips  has  no  son,  a  fact  of  which  the  editor  of 

*  Fraser's  Magazine,  October,  1863. 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  41 

the  Times  was  made  aware.  Even  Mr.  Reuter's  telegrams 
were  too  impartial,  and  others  were  substituted,  in  which 
mere  vituperation  could  be  given  as  authentic  news.  We 
have  strong  reason  to  think  that  the  correspondents  wrote 
to  order,  unless  their  reports  were  tampered  with ;  for  one 
of  them  has  published  a  work  on  his  own  account  giving  a 
picture  of  these  transactions  very  unlike  that  which  was 
given  in  the  Times. 

While  the  Slave-owners  were  loyal  to  the  Union,  noth 
ing  was  too  bad  to  be  asserted  and  believed  of  them.  The 
Times  could  even  swallow  the  delirious  figments  of  a  lunatic 
who  fancied  that  he  had  seen  horrible  murders  and  ferocious 
duels  committed  with  perfect  impunity  in  the  carriages  on 
their  railways.  It  is  only  since  they  have  become  the  de 
stroyers  of  the  Union  that  they  have  appeared  to  our  en 
chanted  eyes  paragons  of  every  public  and  every  private 
virtue.  The  Southern  Correspondent  of  the  Times  is  a  per 
son  whose  history  is  well  known  to  the  public,  and  on  whose 
representations  reliance  cannot  be  safely  placed.  The  char 
acter  of  the  "mean  whites"  in  the  South  seems,  as  I  said 
before,  to  have  been  improved  by  military  discipline ;  and 
the  whole  Confederacy,  under  the  rule  of  a  strong  oligarchy, 
has  shown  extraordinary  vigor  in  war.  The  valor  of  the 
troops  has  been  sometimes  sullied  by  great  ferocity,  espe 
cially  in  their  treatment  of  negroes  in  the  Federal  service. 
This  is  really  all  that  we  know  at  present.  To  talk  of  "  pri 
vate  virtue,"  as  the  special  attribute  of  the  Slave-owners 
and  their  dependents,  is  surely  to  leave  the  evidence  far 
behind. 

You  speak  of  the  causeless  animosity  of  the  Federals 
towards  Great  Britain.  To  have  your  merchantmen  burnt, 
and  your  commerce  driven  from  the  seas,  by  vessels  issuino- 
from  the  ports  of  an  ally,  sailing  under  his  flag,  and  manned 
with  seamen  belonging  to  his  naval  reserve,  —  to  have  his 


42  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE 

Parliament  loudly  applauding  the  builder  of  these  vessels, 
and  exulting  in  the  ravages  which  they  have  committed,  and 
this  in  spite  of  your  having  honorably  done  your  duty  in 
like  cases  to  him,  —  to  see  an  outlying  fort  of  his  on  your 
coast  covering  with  its  guns  a  swarm  of  blockade  runners  to 
feed  the  resistance  of  your  enemy  and  protract  to  you  the 
expenses  and  sufferings  of  war,  —  to  be  assailed  day  after 
day,  not  only  with  the  most  rancorous  and  insulting  abuse, 
but  with  the  grossest  calumnies,  by  newspapers  which  are 
universally  and  justly  regarded  as  the  organs  of  the  English 
upper  classes  and  of  the  English  Government, —  to  be  called 
the  scum  and  refuse  of  Europe  by  a  member  of  the  English 
Legislature  on  a  public  occasion,  and  in  presence  of  a  Prime 
Minister  whose  own  language  and  actions  in  Parliament  in 
dicate  that  he  sympathizes  with  the  sentiment:  —  all  this  may 
not  be  thought  an  adequate  cause  of  animosity,  but  that  it  is 
a  natural  cause  you  will  hardly  deny,  unless  you  deem  all 
commonwealths  too  vulgar  to  be  allowed  to  feel  an  insult. 
The  Americans,  as  new-comers,  have  been  too  sensitive  to 
the  opinion  of  historic  nations,  especially  (in  their  hearts) 
to  the  opinion  of  this  country,  and  too  anxious  for  foreign 
applause.  They  want  a  history  of  their  own,  and  hence 
forth  they  will  have  one,  to  banish  this  childish  vanity  and 
put  manly  pride  in  its  place.  Meantime  their  language, 
even  the  language  of  their  public  men,  has  sometimes  been 
such  as  to  degrade  the  grandeur  of  their  efforts  and  sully 
the  goodness  of  their  cause.  But  they  had  a  fair  right  to 
be  surprised  and  indignant,  when  they  found,  or  thought  they 
found,  that  we  sympathized  with  the  Slave-owners,  —  we 
who  gave  ourselves  out  to  the  world,  and  were  always  ap 
plauding  ourselves  as  the  great  crusaders  against  Slavery, 
and  who  were  arrogating  extraordinary  powers  and  doing 
high-handed  and  obnoxious  things  all  over  the  ocean,  as  the 
professed  champions  of  the  antislavery  cause.  Their  feel- 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  43 

ings  toward  us  have  been  greatly  improved,  and  their  lan 
guage  has  become  more  courteous  since  they  discovered  that 
the  malignity  which  finds  its  organ*  in  the  Times  was  that 
of  a  party  and  not  of  the  English  people. 

You  may  persuade  yourselves  that  your  hearts  were  on 
the  side  of  the  Free  States  at  first,  and  that  the  conduct  of 
the  two  parties  in  the  struggle  has  compelled  you  reluctantly 
to  transfer  your  attachment  to  the  Slave-owners.  But  you 
will  not  so  easily  make  us  forget  the  books  and  pamphlets 
teeming  with  hatred  of  the  Republic  which  were  published 
by  some  of  your  number  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  war. 
And  so,  when  you  protest  that  you  are  not  actuated  by  en 
mity  to  the  North,  you  ought  to  tell  us  what  other  emotion 
than  enmity,  such  language  as  "scum  and  refuse  of  Europe," 
"  more  degraded  than  the  Mexicans,"  is  intended  to  express. 
If  we  are  to  deal  out  charges  of  hypocritical  lying  against  a 
whole  nation,  we  must  at  all  events  take  care  that  all  is  per 
fectly  ingenuous  on  our  side.  The  excuse,  however,  which 
you  tender  for  your  sympathy  with  the  Slave-owners  at  least 
implies  an  admission  that  there  is  something  in  it  needing  an 
excuse :  and  if  the  members  of  the  aristocracy  who  head 
your  Committee  some  years  ago  cherished  the  love  of  free 
dom  as  a  duty,  they  will  be  able  to  make  allowance  for  those 
who  have  not  yet  learnt  to  regard  it  as  vulgar  fanaticism  and 
canting  hypocrisy,  or  ceased  to  look  upon  a  Slave  Code 
which  denies  to  a  whole  race  not  only  lawful  marriage,  the 
right  of  giving  evidence  in  a  court  of  justice,  and  all  the 
other  rights  of  man,  but  the  education  which  might  raise  the 
slave  above  the  level  of  an  animal,  and  the  hope  of  emanci 
pation,  as  one  of  the  most  terrible  monuments  of  deliberate 
wickedness  which  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

Pursuing  the  course  of  the  argument  in  your  Address, 
we  come  next  to  the  proposition,  that  Central  America 
must,  by  the  laws  of  nature  and  for  the  good  of  its  inhabi- 


44  A  LETTER   TO  A   WHIG  MEMBER   OF  THE 

tants,  (and  also,  as  has  been  candidly  said, "  of  our  own  dear 
country,")  be  split  up  like  Europe  into  a  number  of  inde 
pendent  nations ;  a  truth  to  which  you  say  public  men  are 
awakening,  and  which  they  find  it  impossible  any  longer 
to  ignore  ;  though  I  trust  they  may  find  it  possible  to  leave 
nature  to  carry  into  effect  her  own  laws  on  the  American 
Continent,  as  she  will  assuredly  do  in  the  long  run,  without 
the  officious  and  superfluous  aid  of  British  arms.  This  idea, 
however,  that  the  European  system  must  be  reproduced  in 
America,  though  very  natural,  is,  I  suspect,  in  Baconian  lan 
guage,  an  idol  of  the  cavern,  —  a  fallacy  of  the  narrow  Euro 
pean  enclosure  by  which  all  our  ideas  are  bounded,  as  those 
of  the  Siamese  king  were  bounded  by  his  Siam.  The  polit 
ical  progress  of  humanity  through  a  series  of  successive 
phases,  down  to  our  time,  is  manifest  enough.  Why  are  we 
to  suppose  that  it  will  not  continue  ?  And  if  it  is  to  con 
tinue,  what  absurdity  to  act  as  though  the  order  of  things  in 
which  we  happen  to  live  were  final,  and  to  be  forcing  it,  as 
the  last  achievement  of  exhausted  Providence,  on  a  new 
world.  Multiplied  centres  of  thought  and  action,  at  once 
stimulating  and  moderating  each  other,  sustaining  emulation, 
and  furnishing  comparative  experience,  are  probably  as  de 
sirable  in  America  as  in  Europe :  but  it  does  not  follow  that 
they  are  to  be  produced  exactly  in  the  same  way  or  at  the 
same  expense.  In  Europe  they  are  produced  by  a  division 
of  the  Continent  into  independent  nations,  based,  generally 
speaking,  on  differences  of  race  and  language,  and  involving 
a  corresponding  division  of  interests  and  a  liability  to  inter 
national  disputes,  which  can  be  settled  only  by  the  arbitra 
ment  of  war ;  whence  the  curse  of  standing  armies,  with 
which  political  liberty  has  scarcely  found  it  possible  to  exist. 
But  in  North  America,  inhabited  by  people  of  one  language 
and,  if  not  originally,  by  fusion,  of  one  race,  the  same  end 
may  be  attained,  without  the  same  liabilities,  by  the  system 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  45 

of  federation,  which  seems  designed  by  nature  to  bind  the 
rising  communities  of  the  New  World  together  in  a  Union 
combining  all  the  political  and  intellectual  advantages  of 
national  independence,  all  the  mutual  benefits  of  a  group  of 
nations,  stimulating,  educating,  correcting,  and  sustaining 
each  other,  with  the  internal  peace  and  external  security  of 
a  vast  empire.  And  the  same  system  which  to  all  appear 
ances  is  best  for  the  Americans,  is  the  best  also  for  other  na 
tions  brought  into  contact  with  them  ;  for  without  national 
divisions  they  will  have  no  occasion  to  maintain  standing  ar 
mies;  and  without  standing  armies  they,  an  industrial  and 
frugal  population,  drawn  with  difficulty,  as  we  see,  from  their 
farms  and  stores,  will  never  be  a  source  of  danger  to  their 
neighbors.  A  federation,  unlike  a  nation  centralized  in  its 
capital,  is  capable  of  unlimited  extension,  provided  that  the 
federal  principle  be  strictly  observed,  the  central  govern 
ment  confined  to  its  necessary  functions,  and  the  local  free 
dom  of  the  several  States  scrupulously  respected :  a  rule 
from  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  nothing  which  has  now 
taken  place  will  induce  the  Americans,  against  the  dictates 
of  their  highest  interests,  to  depart.  The  mere  distance 
across  the  continent,  where  there  are  railroads,  and  no  sea 
or  alien  territory  intervening,  can  never  prevent  the  meeting 
of  a  Federal  Council  for  the  necessary  concerns  of  the  Con 
federation.  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  European  Christen 
dom  was  once,  for  important  purposes,  political  and  social  as 
well  as  ecclesiastical,  a  confederation  with  the  Pope  at  its 
head  ;  a  state  of  things  to  which  there  is  a  growing  disposi 
tion  to  return,  though  by  a  more  rational  and  better  road. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  you  could  succeed  in  dividing  the 
population  of  Central  America  into  separate  nations,  and 
introducing  among  them,  as  your  leaders  propose,  the 
"  balance  of  power,"  that  is,  a  system  of  international  jeal 
ousy  and  suspicion,  their  state  would  be  far  worse  than 


46  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE 

ours  ;  because  divisions  artificially  created  and  sustained  for 
purposes  implying  national  hostility,  would  be  far  more  bit 
ter,  and  more  productive  of  quarrels,  than  natural  divisions 
caused  by  race  and  language,  which  of  themselves  imply  no 
hostility,  and  which  it  is  the  object  of  all  right-minded  men 
to  soften  gradually  away.  I  believe  that  this  fact  has  been 
present  to  the  instinctive  sense  of  the  American  people,  in 
determining  to  face  any  present  sacrifices,  rather  than  con 
sent  to  the  permanent  disruption  of  their  nation.  And 
whatever  may  be  the  sequel  of  the  war,  the  main  object,  in 
this  respect,  has  been  already  attained.  The  Slave-owners 
aimed  at  nothing  less  than  the  foundation  of  a  vast  slave 
empire  stretching  indefinitely  westward  and  including  Mex 
ico,  the  mortal  antagonism  between  which  and  the  Free 
North  would  have  ruined  the  tranquillity,  security,  and,  to  a 
great  extent,  the  prosperity  of  the  Continent  forever.  All 
fear  of  such  a  result  as  this  is  now  at  an  end.  Slavery  will 
never  cross  the  Mississippi.  If  the  Old  States  succeed  in 
establishing  their  independence,  which  is  the  utmost  that  is 
now  to  be  feared,  they  will  scarcely  be  a  power  formidable 
enough  to  keep  the  Continent  under  arms.  Probably,  as 
Slavery  dies  when  confined  to  a  limited  area,  they  will  sink, 
after  a  time,  into  decay.  The  convulsive  force  which  has 
been  inspired  into  them,  and  the  intense  union  into  which 
they  have  been  welded  by  the  war,  will  pass  away  on  the 
return  of  peace.  Facts,  which  those  who  have  the  destinies 
of  the  commonwealth  in  their  hands,  and  whose  duty  it  is  to 
consider  how  far  her  powers  can  be  pressed  without  en 
dangering  objects  more  valuable  to  the  Americans  them 
selves  and  to  the  world  at  large  than  the  subjugation  of 
the  Old  Slave  States,  will  do  well  to  keep  before  their 
minds. 

The  Americans  are  as  well  aware  as  you  can  be  of  the  in 
terest  which  the  European  Governments  have,  or  imagine 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  47 

they  have,  in  producing  disunion  among  the  communities  of 
the  American  Continent :  and  they  see  plainly  enough  what 
the  consequences  of  giving  an  opening  to  European  diplo 
macy  would  be.  They  find,  directly  their  Union  appears 
likely  to  be  dissolved,  Canada  goaded  into  an  attitude  of  hos 
tility  on  one  side,  and  French  ambition  presenting  itself  in 
arms  upon  the  other.  Your  leaders  exult  in  the  prospect  of 
seeing  a  military  despotism  founded  by  the  French  Emperor 
in  Mexico,  notwithstanding  their  righteous  abhorrence  of  the 
military  despotism  which  they  suppose  to  have  been  founded 
by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  United  States.  Perhaps  the  French 
Emperor  may  have  reason  to  wish  that  he  had  studied  the 
signs  of  political  death  before  he  assumed  that  the  American 
Commonwealth  was  dead.  I  am  sanguine  enough  to  believe 
that  one  result  of  this  dreadful  struggle  will  be  to  bar  for 
the  future  all  reactionary  influences  and  enterprises  of  this 
kind,  and  to  make  the  new  world  a  new  world  indeed,  —  a 
world  of  new  opportunities  and  new  hopes  for  man.  Eng 
land  —  the  English  people  at  least  —  would  be  no  loser  by 
the  change  :  for  no  sinister  influence,  no  artificial  connection 
which  diplomacy  can  offer,  is  worth  half  so  much  to  us  as 
our  natural  alliance  with  that  portion  of  our  race  which  has 
the  Western  Continent  for  its  dower. 

Next,  you  appeal  to  our  commercial  classes,  whose  inter 
ests  you  say  are  involved  in  the  recognition  of  the  Slave 
Power.  I  am  glad  that  you  do  not  leave  our  commercial  in 
terests  out  of  sight,  and  I  trust  you  will  bear  them  in  mind 
when  next  the  question  of  the  Alabama  and  her  consorts 
comes  under  consideration  ;  for  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  any 
thing  more  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  a  commercial 
country,  than  the  establishment  of  a  principle  under  which 
even  an  inland  power  might  wage  a  maritime  war  against 
us  with  impunity  from  neutral  ports.  There  is  in  the  Free 
States  an  evil  tendency  to  give  protection  to  native  manu- 


48  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF  THE 

factures,  from  which  the  Slave  States  are  free,  because  they 
have  no  manufactures  to  protect.  "We  condemn  this  tendency 
as  decidedly  as  you  can,  and  perhaps  with  more  consistency 
than  noblemen  and  squires  who  a  few  years  ago  were  resist 
ing  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws.  But  you  have  only  to 
glance  over  economical  history  to  see  that  it  is  the  besetting 
sin,  not  of  the  Americans  only,  but  of  all  new  manufacturing 
countries.  It  is  as  strong  in  Canada  as  in  the  United  States. 
The  Americans  are  not  wanting  in  shrewdness,  and  they 
will  learn  in  time,  like  their  neighbors,  that  Protection  is  a 
dead  loss  to  the  community,  both  in  raising  the  price  of  com 
modities,  and  in  diverting  industry  from  the  more  profitable 
to  the  less  profitable  employment.  And  then  the  only  ques 
tion  for  those  who  trade  to  America  will  be,  in  effect,  as  to 
the  comparative  productiveness  of  free  and  slave  labor,  —  a 
question  on  which  I  abstain  from  entering,  both  because  it  is 
too  extensive,  and  because,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  all  econo 
mists  of  eminence  are  on  the  same  side.  Meantime  if  you 
think  that  the  immediate  interests  of  commerce  would  be 
promoted  by  a  great  maritime  war,  with  the  sea  swarming 
with  privateers  chartered  by  our  reckless  hatred  of  the 
North,  Commerce,  speaking  by  the  mouth  of  her  best  repre 
sentatives,  appears  to  be  of  a  different  mind. 

From  commercial  we  pass  to  moral  considerations.  "  The 
struggle  is  one  for  independence  on  the  part  of  the  South, 
and  for  empire  on  the  part  of  the  North."  The  struggle  on 
the  part  of  the  North,  with  deference  to  you,  is  not  for  em 
pire,  but  for  the  maintenance  of  the  existing  Union,  —  a 
totally  different  thing  in  every  point  of  view  ;  as  we,  if  we 
had  to  put  down  a  Repeal  movement  in  Ireland,  should  very 
clearly  perceive.  I  doubt  whether  the  author  of  the  dictum 
himself  has  failed  to  see  the  distinction  since  the  battle  of 
Gettysburg.  But  suppose  the  North  were  really  fighting 
for  empire.  Are  we  the  people  to  denounce  and  chastise 


,    SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  49 

them  for  that  offence  ?  Sermons  in  favor  of  continence  are 
very  good  things ;  but  they  are  a  little  out  of  place  when 
preached  by  Lovelace,  and  by  Lovelace  fresh  from  a  house 
of  ill-fame.  We  grasp,  in  addition  to  our  colonies,  English 
and  conquered,  and  to  our  military  dependencies,  the  whole 
of  India  ;  we  extend  our  rapacious  arms  to  Burmah,  and 
try  to  extend  them  to  Cabul ;  we  annex,  by  robber's  law, 
Oude,  Sattara,  and  Nagpore  ;  we  bombard  Canton  to  force 
a  way  for  one  set  of  our  adventurers,  and  Kagosima  to  force 
a  way  for  another ;  we  bayonet  the  last  insurgent  Sepoy  in 
cold  blood  ;  we  deport. the  last  Tasmanian  to  his  island  grave; 
we  baptize  the  Maories,  exterminate  them,  and  confiscate 
their  land,  and  then  we  turn  round,  and  with  uplifted  hands 
and  eyes  read  Pharisaic  lectures  to  our  neighbors  on  the  ex 
ceeding  wickedness  of  fighting  for  empire.  And  so  with 
"  humanity,"  which  you  urge  as  a  motive  for  getting  us  into 
another  war.  When  has  "  humanity  "  prevented  the  English, 
or  any  aristocratic  or  despotic  government,  from  serving  its 
own  objects,  however  selfish,  at  the  expense  of  human  mis 
ery  and  blood  ?  What  say  you  to  the  crusade  of  our  aris 
tocracy  against  the  French  Revolution  ?  What  say  you  to 
the  diplomatic  war  in  the  Crimea?  Has  not  the  name 
Peacemonger  been  as  great  a  reproach  here  as  it  can  be  in 
America  ?  Why  are  not  these  republicans  to  be  allowed  to 
have  their  quarrels  as  well  as  kings  and  nobles  ?  This  is 
the  first  war  for  many  a  day  in  which  the  common  soldier 
has  been  fighting  for  his  own  cause,  and  in  which,  if  victo 
rious,  he  will  share  the  fruits  of  victory.  Yet  this  is  the 
first  occasion,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  on  which  the  voice  of 
the  English  aristocracy  and  of  the  English  clergy  has  been 
raised  in  favor  of  peace.  The  Bishop  of  my  diocese  called 
upon  his  people  the  other  day  to  pray  for  peace  in  America ; 
that  is,  for  the  success  of  the  rebellion.  Full  as  the  world 
has  been,  since  he  has  held  the  see,  of  dreadful  and  unjust 

3  D 


50  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF   THE 

wars,  he  never  bade  us  pray  for  peace  before,  and  I  doubt 
whether  he  will  ever  bid  us  pray  for  peace  again.  Our  re 
sponsibilities  are  very  extensive.  But  happily  we  are  not 
answerable  for  the  conduct  of  nations  in  America.  We  are 
not  the  censors  of  that  continent,  nor  the  arbiters  of  its  des 
tinies.  Recent  events  ought  to  have  convinced  us  that  it  is 
quite  as  much  as  we  can  do  to  remain  arbiters  of  the  desti 
nies  of  Europe.  Let  us  set  an  example  of  humanity  in  our 
proceedings,  and  we  may  be  sure  that  the  blood  shed  by 
great  and  independent  Powers  on  the  other  side  of  the  At 
lantic  will  never  be  laid  to  our  charge.  Suppose  that  the 
North' were  likely  to  be  guilty  of  holding  the  South  as  a 
"garrisoned  dependency," — a  result  which  it  is  preposterous 
to  predict  in  the  case  of  Kentucky,  Missouri,  Tennessee,  and 
the  States  beyond  the  Mississippi,  all  of  which  have  been 
wrested  by  the  Federals  from  that  which  you  somewhat 
loosely  and  fallaciously  call  the  South,  in  the  course  of  the 
war,  —  let  us  take  care  that  we  are  not  guilty  of  holding 
Ireland  as  a  garrisoned  dependency.  A  good  deal  of  the 
labor  which  we  expend  in  setting  the  whole  world  to  rights 
would  be  more  profitably  expended  in  doing  some  acts  of 
justice  within  a  narrower  sphere. 

Great  Britain,  you  say,  has  been  always  ready  to  ac 
knowledge  a  national  uprising.  That  the  British  people 
have  been  ready  to  acknowledge  and  encourage  national 
uprisings  is  true ;  but  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  sentiment 
has  not  before  extended  with  anything  like  its  present  force 
to  the  aristocracy  and  the  clergy.  The  love  of  patriot  insur 
rection,  if  it  has  burned  in  the  bosoms  of  those  classes,  has 
burned,  till  now,  with  a  temperate  flame.  Italy,  Hungary, 
Poland,  Montenegro,  have  excited  no  such  enthusiasm  in 
aristocratic  minds.  The  same  may  be  said,  I  believe,  of 
Greece ;  and  I  am  sure  of  Belgium ;  —  the  two  cases  to 
which  you  specially  appeal.  The  Christian  nations  crushed 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  51 

under  the  brutal  sway  of  the  Turks  are  left  to  the  mercies 
of  diplomacy  without  compunction.  Venetia  writhes  be 
neath  the  yoke  of  a  foreign  oppressor ;  yet  no  aristocratic 
association  is  formed  for  her  deliverance.  The  Times  cele 
brated  with  loud  jubilation  the  triumphant  entry  of  Ra- 
detsky  into  Milan,  and  it  loses  no  safe  opportunity  of  showing 
its  hatred  of  Garibaldi,  the  great  champion  of  nationality, 
who  now,  through  some  unaccountable  delusion,  which  has 
led  him  to  mistake  his  enemy's  cause  for  his  own,  burns  to 
be  fighting  upon  the  Federal  side.  This  is  no  uprising  of  a 
nation.  It  is,  and  will  always  be  called  in  after  times,  the 
Revolt  of  the  Slave-owners,  who  are  trying  to  sweep  away 
the  laboring  part  of  what  you  call  an  uprisen  nation  into 
irredeemable  bondage,  and  who  have  forced  their  white 
dependents  into  their  armies  by  ruthless  conscriptions,  even 
torturing  British  subjects,  as  our  Government  has  expressly 
declared,  to  compel  them  to  enlist  in  their  ranks.  If  it  had 
really  been  the  uprising  of  a  nation,  it  is  doubtful  whether 
you  would  have  got  together  all  the  present  members  of 
your  Association  in  support  of  the  cause. 

You  offer,  if  we  will  assist  you  in  establishing  a  great 
Slave  Power,  to  do  your  best  to  persuade  the  Slave-owners 
to  abolish  slavery.  I  mistrust  the  offer,  —  at  least  I  object 
to  going  to  war  in  reliance  on  it,  —  on  two  grounds,  the 
logical  position  of  those  who  are  to  persuade,  and  the  inflex 
ible  resolution  (as  it  seems  to  me)  of  those  who  are  to  be 
persuaded.  In  this  very  manifesto  you  avow  that  man  can 
hold  property  in  man  ;  departing  therein  from  the  prin 
ciples  of  your  country,  which  denies  the  existence  of  such 
property,  and  would  set  free  at  once,  and  in  utter  disre 
gard  of  the  alleged  rights  of  the  master,  any  Southern  slave 
who  touched  her  soil.  Throughout  this  contest  your  party 
have  endeavored  by  all  means  and  by  every  kind  of  argu 
ment,  —  Scriptural  (of  which  the  Times  is  a  great  master), 


52  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER  OF  THE 

political,  and  physiological,  —  both  in  public  and  in  private, 
to  undermine  the  morality  of  the  people  on  this  subject,  and 
to  infuse  into  them  the  belief  that  Slavery,  though  open 
to  some  objections,  was  not  a  wrong.  Worst  of  all,  the 
attempt  has  been  made,  from  which  your  Address  is  not 
entirely  free,  to  destroy  the  moral  confidence,  and  lower  the 
moral  bearing  of  England  on  the  question,  by  persuading 
her  that  she  was  herself  still  tainted  with  the  guilt;  as 
though,  if  she  "  bequeathed  slavery  "  to  the  Americans,  she 
had  not  also  bequeathed  to  them  the  example  of  abolition, 
and  that  at  no  trifling  cost ;  and  as  though  she  were  not 
yearly  expending  much  money  and  not  a  few  lives  to'  put 
down  the  abominable  traffic  by  which  American  slavery  has 
been,  and,  if  you  can  compass  your  object,  will  again  be, 
fed.  As  to  the  Slave-owner,  he  is  pouring  out  his  blood  and 
bringing  ruin  on  his  country  for  a  cause  which  he  has  told 
us,  in  words  which  have  made  our  ears  to  tingle,  is  the  best 
on  earth,  —  the  cause  of  Slavery.  And  it  has  been  justly 
said  that,  next  to  his  fierce  valor,  the  thing  most  worthy 
of  respect  about  him  is  the  haughty  frankness  with  which 
he  has  avowed  in  the  face  of  scandalized  humanity  his 
inhuman  purpose,  and  spurned  all  the  attempts  of  his  more 
cautious  advocates  in  this  country  to  veil  from  the  eyes  of 
Englishmen  the  real  object  of  the  war.  You  talk  in  polite 
phrase  of  "  servile  labor,"  and  "  institutions  distasteful  to 
Englishmen  "  ;  but  Slavery  —  perpetual  and  unlimited  —  is 
the  name  which  he  flings  in  your  teeth  as  well  as  in  ours. 
Like  Danton,  he  has  looked  his  crime  in  the  face  and  done 
it ;  and  his  effrontery  lends  a  kind  of  black  majesty  to  hrs 
cause.  Perhaps,  indeed,  he  was  sagacious  as  well  as  bold, 
and  knew  that  a  fierce  denial  of  the  Rights  of  Labor,  though 
it  would  of  course  be  met  with  professions  of  dislike,  might 
touch  a  fibre  of  latent  sympathy  in  reactionary  hearts. 
Overtures,  it  is  believed,  have  been  already  made  by  some 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  53 

of  your  party  to  the  Slave  Government  on  the  subject  of 
gradual  emancipation  :  and  it  would  be  instructive,  before 
any  serious  step  is  taken,  to  know  what  reception  those 
overtures  have  met.  But  the  truth  is,  that  in  your  own 
manifesto  you  furnish  the  Slave-owner  with  an  overwhelm 
ing  answer  to  any  arguments,  grounded  on  the  moral  evils 
of  Slavery,  which  you  can  possibly  address  to  him.  By 
your  own  showing,  Slavery,  to  your  surprise  and  admiration, 
has  produced  nothing  but  public  and  private  virtue ;  while 
freedom  has  produced  nothing  but  mendacity,  cruelty,  and 
corruption.  "  Cast  away,  then,"  the  Slave-owner  will  say, 
"  your  English  prejudices,  however  rooted  they  may  be  in 
your  minds  by  unsound  legislation  and  irrational  tradition, 
and  by  your  unwillingness  to  admit  that  your  own  eman 
cipation  of  the  slaves,  so  long  your  pride,  was  in  fact  an  act 
of  stupendous  folly.  Accept  the  decisive  verdict  of  experi 
ence,  and,  instead  of  truckling  to  an  unsound  public  opinion 
by  imitating  with  a  faint  heart  and  stammering  lips  the  lan 
guage  of  the  friends  of  freedom,  unite  with  us  in  propagat 
ing  an  institution,  the  mother  of  every  public  and  private 
virtue,  not  only  over  America,  but  over  the  world." 

Fail  in  your  attempts  to  persuade  the  great  Slave-owners 
that  it  is  better  for  their  interests  to  give  up  their  slaves,  and 
what  will  you  have  done  by  helping  the  Slave  States  to 
establish  their  independence?  Will  you  have  created  an 
heroic  republic,  or  an  heroic  community  of  any  kind  ?  The 
military  and  administrative  qualities  which  have  been  evoked 
by  the  struggle,  and  which  you  admit  yourselves  that  you 
never  perceived  before  the  struggle,  will  cease  to  excite  your 
admiration  or  to  excuse  your  sympathy  with  the  Slave-owner 
when  the  struggle  is  over.  The  decisive  experience  of  his 
tory  shows  us  that  the  consequence  of  Slavery  to  a  nation  is 
death.  You  will  have  for  a  time  perhaps  continued  displays 
of  military  energy  in  filibustering  enterprises,  for  which,  as 


54  A   LETTER   TO   A   WHIG   MEMBER   OF   THE 

Mexico  and  the  West  are  cut  off,  the  West  Indies  seem  to 
offer  a  convenient  scene.  But  afterwards,  what  can  you 
hope  to  have  but  the  loathsome  spectacle  of  corruption  and 
decay,  —  a  vast  Cuba,  without  the  qualifying  element  of 
fresh  blood  from  Spain  ?  And  the  responsibility  of  this 
result  will  have  been  gratuitously  brought  by  your  efforts  on 
a  nation,  which,  if  it  was  once  deeply  tainted  with  the  guilt 
of  Slavery,  has  perhaps  done  more  than  any  other  nation  to 
redeem  the  slave. 

Few  people  doubt  that,  if  this  war  is  allowed  to  run  its 
course  without  interference,  whatever  may  be  its  issue  in 
other  respects,  Slavery  will  be  abolished.  The  motives  of 
the  North  for  emancipating  the  slaves  I  once  more  decline 
to  scrutinize.  When  there  was  a  question  as  to  our  objects 
in  insisting  on  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade,  Talleyrand 
said —  and  I  have  no  doubt  with  truth  —  that  he  was  the 
only  man  in  France  who  believed  that  we  were  sincere. 
That  a  large  and  powerful  party  in  the  North  at  least  was 
sincere,  the  Secession  ordinances  furnish,  as  was  before  said, 
irrefragable  proof.  Suppose  the  only  motive  of  the  North 
to  be  the  military  one  of  drawing  off  the  laboring  population 
which  sustains  the  war :  still,  all  men  of  sense  who  are  hearty 
enemies  of  Slavery  will  be  ready  to  welcome  a  great  boon 
for  humanity,  through  whatever  accident  it  may  be  offered. 
We  must  not  refuse  to  be  saved  from  shipwreck  because  our 
preservers  may  have  an  eye  to  the  salvage.  Slavery  was 
the  bane  and  curse  of  that  hemisphere  ;  and  its  poisonous 
influence  was  beginning,  as  we  see,  to  extend  to  some  classes 
in  ours.  Let  us  accept  its  abolition  at  the  hand  of  Provi 
dence,  if  we  will  not  accept  it  at  the  hands  of  man.  You 
think  that  emancipation  would  be  better  if  effected  by  the 
free  will  of  the  master,  deliberately  and  in  peace,  than  as  it 
is  now  being  effected,  by  violent  means,  suddenly,  and  amidst 
the  confusion  of  a  great  war.  I  think  so  too ;  but  I  know 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  55 

that  it  is  being  effected  in  one  way,  and  that  it  never  would 
be  effected  in  the  other.  And  after  all,  unstatesmanlike  as 
it  may  appear,  if  the  negro  will  work  for  wages,  as  there 
seems  so  far  reason  to  think  that  he  will,  there  is  no  better 
way  of  emancipating  him  than  to  set  him  free.  Incidentally 
the  war  has  proved  very  favorable  in  the  highest  sense  to 
the  work  of  Emancipation,  since  it  has  led  to  the  enlistment 
of  large  numbers  of  negroes  as  soldiers  in  the  Federal 
armies,  and  has  thereby  perhaps  done  more  than  could  have 
been  done  within  any  calculable  period,  by  any  other  agency, 
to  break  through  prejudice,  and  raise  the  social  condition  of 
the  long  degraded  race.*  The  Emancipation  Proclamation 

*  "  The  circumstances  attending  the  departure  of  the  Twenty-second 
Infantry,  a  negro  regiment,  raised  by  the  Union  League  Club  here,  for  the 
seat  of  war,  three  days  ago,  were  a  remarkable  illustration  of  the  strength 
and  rapidity  of  the  tide  of  antislavery  sentiment.  Last  July  it  was  for 
nearly  a  whole  week  dangerous  for  a  negro  to  show  his  face  in  the  streets ; 
it  is  even  at  this  moment  dangerous  for  one  to  venture  into  some  of  the 
Irish  quarters ;  and  when  last  autumn  a  colored  regiment,  raised  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  was  passing  through  New  York  on  its  way  South,  and  it  was 
proposed  that  it  should  march  down  Broadway,  the  plan  was  abandoned 
on  the  recommendation  of  Mr.  Kennedy,  the  superintendent  of  police, 
who  said  that  if  it  were  attempted  he  could  not  be  answerable  for  the 
peace  of  the  city.  The  war  feeling  and  the  antislavery  feeling  have  beeu 
rising  so  fiercely,  however,  ever  since  that  time,  that  when  the  Twenty- 
second  was  about  to  take  its  departure,  it  was  arranged,  not  simply  that 
it  should  march  down  Broadway,  but  that  there  should  be  a  public  pre 
sentation  of  colors  to  it  from  the  ladies  in  Union  Square.  I  walked  down 
to  Fourteenth  Street,  to  see  the  regiment  march  down  from  their  quarters 
at  Pike's  Island,  on  their  way  to  the  square  in  which  the  presentation 
was  to  take  place.  The  square  itself,  and  the  parts  of  Fourteenth  Street 
bordering  on  it,  the  doorsteps,  and  lower  balconies,  and  the  sidewalks, 
and  all  parts  of  the  streets  not  kept  clear  by  the  police,  were  crowded 
with  colored  people.  I  never  saw  a  tenth  part  of  the  number  collected 
together,  and  doubt  if  so  many  have  ever  been  seen  in  one  place  at  one 
time  in  the  North  before.  The  excitement  amongst  them  seemed  to  be 
intense ;  but  I  am  bound  to  say  that  so  orderly,  well-dressed,  and  clean  a 
crowd  I  have  never  seen  anywhere,  though  I  have  seen  many  crowds  in 
various  countries.  The  women,  in  particular,  were  very  well  and  neatly 
dressed,  and  had  a  most  respectable  look,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word. 


56  A   LETTER  TO  A   WHIG  MEMBER   OF   THE 

was  to  produce  a  servile  war  with  all  its  horrors,  in  spite  of 
the  affectionate  relations  which  at  other  times  we  are  told 
subsist  between  the  masters  and  the  slaves :  but  these  ghastly 
visions  have  at  least  yielded  to  the  sense  of  reality,  and  those 
who  cherish  them  are  now  tired  of  shrieking  in  that  key. 

But  I  am  not  sure  that  I  have  not  been  wasting  your 
time  and  my  own  in  going  through  the  paragraphs  of  your 
Address.  I  suspect  that  the  arguments  set  forth  in  it  affect 
the  minds  of  the  majority  of  your  party  little  more  than 
they  affect  ours.  It  is  not  a  legal  theory  as  to  the  rights  of 
States  under  the  American  Constitution,  —  it  is  not  a  specu 
lative  view  as  to  the  differences  of  character  and  interest 
between  the  people  of  Richmond  and  the  people  of  Wash- 
in^ton,  —  it  is  not  admiration  of  the  Southerners,  of  whom, 
as  I  said  before,  so  long  as  they  remained  in  the  Union, 

The  crowd  was  so  dense  that  at  some  points  it  was  only  by  great  exertion 
that  it  was  possible  to  make  one's  way  through,  and  I  was  frequently 
hemmed  in  for  some  minutes,  but  I  am  satisfied  I  have  never  seen  any 
collection  of  members  of  the  '  superior  race  '  in  New  York  close  contact 
with  which  would  not  have  been  ten  times  more  offensive  than  with  this 
congregation  of  '  niggers.'  A  New  York  Irish  crowd  of  the  same  size,  in 
the  same  place,  would  have  been  unapproachable  by  anybody  with  the 
use  of  his  nose  left  him,  and  retaining  an  ordinary  regard  for  the  safety 
of  his  skull  and  ribs.  When  the  regiment  marched  round  the  corner 
from  Fourteenth  Street,  the  band  playing  and  colors  flying,  the  enthusi 
asm  of  their  friends  passed  all  bounds.  One  mulatto  woman  standing 
near  me  looked  on  eagerly  for  a  few  minutes,  and  then  burst  into  tears, 
and  all  along  the  line,  as  far  as  I  could  see,  white  handkerchiefs  were  be 
ing  shaken  frantically  by  thousands  of  sable  arms.  They  marched  very 
steadily,  in  heavy  order,  and  were  generally  of  very  fine  physique,— 
finer,  I  think,  than  the  average  of  white  regiments,  and  there  was  much 
greater  equality  amongst  them  in  age.  Many  of  them  were  of  huge  pro 
portion.  I  noticed  two  or  three  sergeants  tall  enough  and  brawny  enough 
for  Barnum's  Museum.  Their  weak  point  was  the  handling  of  theic  mus 
kets,  which  were  badly  carried  and  clumsily  shifted ;  but  I  learned  that 
they  had  only  been  furnished  to  them  ten  days  previously,  so  that  they 
had  had  little  time  for  drill.  The  officers  are  all  white,  and  have  been 
selected  for  this  regiment  with  great  care.  Many  of  the  captains  seemed 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  57 

nothing  was  too  abominable  to  be  believed,  —  it  is  not  a  de 
sire  to  bestow  on  Central  America  the  blessings  of  separate 
nationalities  and  the  balance  of  power,  —  it  is  not  a  romantic 
affection  for  Free  Trade  and  a  passionate  abhorrence  of 
Protection,  —  it  is  not  a  newly-born  though  laudable  sense 
of  the  wickedness  of  fighting  for  empire,  —  it  is  not  an  en 
thusiasm,  if  not  newly-born,  new  in  its  intensity,  for  the 
cause  of  insurgent  nations,  —  it  is  not  a  fear  lest  Slavery 
should  be  extinguished  in  any  manner  but  the  most  states 
manlike  and  the  most  conducive  to  the  highest  interests  of 
the  negro:  —  it  is  not  any  one  of  these  things,  nor  the 
whole  of  them  put  together,  that  has  kindled  among  the 
reactionary  party  in  this  country  a  passionate  and  almost 
frantic  excitement  of  feeling,  such  as  has  not  been  wit 
nessed  among  the  same  party  since  the  war  against  the 

very  young;  but  the  field  officers  are,  I  believe,  all  West-Pointers,  and 
have  seen  service.  In  front  of  the  Union  League  Club  a  platform  had 
been  erected,  and  from  this  an  address  to  the  regiment  was  delivered  by 
Charles  King,  the  president  of  Columbia  College,  and  a  stand  of  colors 
was  presented  on  behalf  of  a  body  of  ladies  belonging  to  '  the  best  society.' 
Bouquets  were  flung  to  the  officers;  the  colonel -led  in  three  cheers  for  the 
club  and  the  ladies,  and  they  then  marched  down  Broadway  amidst  a 
general  huzzaing  and  waving  of  handkerchiefs  along  the  whole  route. 
The  marching  of  the  men  during  this  part  of  the  progress  was  very  fine,  — 
steady,  vigorous,  and  correct.  They  wore  the  United  States  blue  and 
white  leggings.  You  see  the  world  moves,  after  all.  I  saw  two  respect 
able-looking  colored  men  shake  hands  as  the  regiment  moved  off  from 
Union  Square,  one  asking:  '  Well,  what  do  you  think  of  this?  '  '  I  like 
it;  I  like  it,'  was  the  reply;  '  and  I  thank  God  I  've  lived  to  see  it.'  As 
regards  the  value  of  these  troops  for  military  purposes,  I  may  mention 
that  General  Seymour,  who  commanded  at  the  late  battle  in  Florida,  is 
an  officer  of  the  regular  army,  and  has  been  a  very  virulent  proslavery 
man,  full  of  contempt  for  negroes,  says,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  in  New 
York,  speaking  of  the  affair  of  Qlustie:  '  The  colored  troops  fought  splen 
didly,  magnificently.  One  fellow,  a  color-sergeant  in  his  regiment,  stood 
holding  the  colors  of  his  regiment  until  he  stood  almost  alone,  and  then 
he  fell  covered  with  wounds.'  "  —  New  York  Correspondent  of  the  Daily 
News,  March  23,  1864. 
3* 


58  A  LETTER   TO  A   WHIG   MEMBER   OF   THE 

French  Revolution ;  that  has  caused  the  special  organs  of 
these  classes  in  the  press  actually  to  foam  with  fury,  and  to 
forget  the  interests  as  well  as  the  duties  of  journalism  in 
their  attempts  to  keep  on  a  level  with  the  passions  of  their 
readers  ;  that  has  made  the  legislators  of  a  great  maritime 
and  commercial  country  hail  with  loud  cheers  the  success  of  a 
precedent  rendering  every  neutral  port  a  basis  of  operations 
for  our  enemy  in  time  of  war ;  that  has  incited  members  of 
the  British  House  of  Peers  to  stand  forth  publicly  and  avow 
themselves  leaders  of  a  league  having  for  its  object  the 
"disruption"  of  a  friendly  nation,  allied  by  recent  treaties, 
and  bound  by  common  objects  of  public  morality  to  our 
own  ;  that  has  thrown  the  Conservative  party  in  this  coun 
try  into  the  arms  of  the  Democratic  mob  of  New  York ; 
and  that  has  led  men  careful  of  their  character  to  face  the 
finger  of  suspicion,  which  will  always  be  pointed  at  the  aris 
tocratic  allies  of  the  Slave-owning  aristocracy  of  the  South. 
History  will  not  mistake  the  meaning  of  the  loud  cry  of 
triumph  which  burst  from  the  hearts  of  all  who  openly  or 
secretly  hated  liberty  and  progress,  at  the  fall,  as  they  fondly 
supposed,  of  the  Great  Republic.  How  senseless  that  cry 
was ;  how  absurdly  mistaken  they  who  raised  it  were  in 
thinking  that  the  rupture  between  Slavery  and  Free  La 
bor  was  the  effect  of  republican  institutions,  and  betokened 
their  ruin,  matters  little  :  the  source  of  the  joy  which  rang  out 
in  it  was  not  doubtful.  It  has  sunk  now  to  a  lower  and  less 
jubilant  tone.  The  Commonwealth,  the  first  hour  of  weak 
ness  being  past,  has  put  forth  a  power  and  displayed  re 
sources  which  have  astonished  not  only  her  enemies,  but  her 
friends ;  and  it  seems  as  though,  after  one  bright  glimpse  of 
hope  for  Slavery,  the  evil  spirit  of  Freedom  were  about  to 
prevail  in  the  world  once  more.  That  issue,  fraught,  as  it 
is  imagined,  with  fearful  consequences,  can  now,  apparently, 
be  averted  only  by  dragging  England  into  the  war  upon 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  59 

the  Southern  side.  And  this  may  yet  be  accomplished. 
It  will  be  accomplished,  without  a  shadow  of  doubt,  if  the 
rams  escape  from  the  Mersey,  arid  proceed  to  prey  from  an 
English  port  on  American  trade.  The  more  vehement 
members  of  your  party  see  their  opportunity,  and  are  trying 
to  take  advantage  of  it ;  while  your  great  organ  in  the  press 
labors  earnestly  to  keep  up  the  mutual  exasperation  which, 
if  a  dispute  should  take  place,  would  render  a  peaceful  solu 
tion  almost  hopeless.  But  before  you,  the  great  friends  of 
*•  humanity,"  from  whom  we  have  had  such  impressive  hom 
ilies  on  the  horrors  of  war,  plunge  us  into  a  war  with  Amer 
ica,  think  twice  whether  it  is  wise  for  you,  looking  to  your 
own  interest,  to  do  so.  For,  depend  upon  it,  if  you  make  a 
mistake,  it  will  be  one  of  the  most  serious  kind. 

The  minds  of  some,  no  doubt,  are  still  full  of  the  recollec 
tion  of  the  crusade  against  the  French  Republic :  and  they 
think  perhaps  that  the  same  game  might  be  played  with 
success  again.  But  in  those  days,  Parliament  being  unre- 
formed,  the  Tory  aristocracy,  and  their  ecclesiastical  confed 
erates,  had  absolute  command  of  the  nation.  It  signified 
nothing  what  blunders  were  committed,  or  what  disasters 
were  encountered,  —  what  armies  were  lost  under  the  Duke 
of  York  in  Flanders,  or  what  fleets  were  driven  to  mutiny 
at  the  Nore  by  reckless  corruption  and  mismanagement,  — 
what  financial  burdens  were  imposed  upon  the  country.  The 
mass  of  the  public  were  almost  as  passive  instruments  in  the 
hands  of  the  dominant  class,  though  under  the  form  of  a 
free  constitution,  as  the  American  slaves  are  in  the  hands 
of  their  masters.  Moreover,  the  lower  classes  were  so  sunk 
in  ignorance,  that  it  was  easy  to  work  upon  their  passions, 
and  to  persuade  them  that  the  French,  their  ancient  enemies, 
were  coming  to  cut  off  their  ears  and  noses,  and  to  force 
them  to  eat  frogs  instead  of  bread.  The  taxation  was  grind 
ing  ;  but  the  misery  to  which  the  people  were  reduced  only 


60  A   LETTER   TO   A   WHIG  MEMBER   OF   THE 

made  them  the  more  willing  to  enlist :  and  those  by  whom, 
and  for  whose  objects  the  taxes  were  imposed,  got  the  greater 
part  of  their  own  payments  back  in  the  shape  of  the  high 
rents  and  high  tithes  produced  by  the  protection  which  the 
war  gave  to  home-grown  corn,  and  were  further  indemnified 
by  sharing  among  them  a  vast  patronage  both  in  Church 
and  State.  The  wealthy  merchants  who  supported  the 
Government  also  prospered,  through  the  monopoly  of  com 
merce  secured  to  them  by  a  war  in  which  we  were  com 
pletely  masters  of  the  sea,  —  a  monopoly  most  injurious  to 
the  helpless  many,  but  very  profitable  to  the  influential  few. 
Any  fiscal  burdens  which  would  really  have  entailed  sacri 
fices  on  the  holders  of  political  power  were  thrown  off  upon 
posterity.  Toryism  was  absolutely  in  the  ascendant,  and  all 
incovenient  aspirations,  all  thoughts  of  political  or  social 
reform,  were  for  the  time  effectually  extinguished  by  the 
fury  of  the*  war. 

I  do  not  say  that  you  would  not  be  able  to  do  the  same 
thing  again :  but  I  say  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  you  would 
be  able,  and  that  the  question  deserves  your  deliberate  con 
sideration.  We  have  not  yet  got  a  Free  Parliament,  but  we 
have  a  Parliament  very  far  less  enslaved  than  the  Parliament 
of  Pitt,  and  one  which,  in  case  of  miscarriage  and  suffering, 
may  become,  as  it  did  even  in  the  Crimean  war,  the  organ 
of  discontent.  There  is  far  more  intelligence  and  political 
activity  than  there  then  was  among  the  working  classes  in 
the  towns,  and  these  men  are,  for  the  most  part,  as  well 
aware  that  the  cause  of  those  who  are  fighting  for  the  rights 
of  labor  are  theirs,  as  any  nobleman  in  your  Association  can 
be  that  the  other  cause  is  his.  Our  peasantry  are  of  course 
still  very  ignorant  on  political  questions :  but  they  have  no 
natural  antipathy  to  the  Americans ;  they  would  not  be  so 
easily  persuaded  that  the  Americans  were  coming  to  cut  off 
their  noses  and  make  them  eat  frogs :  perhaps  it  has  begun 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.  61 

to  dawn  upon  them  that,  if  there  is  any  danger  of  being 
forced  to  eat  frogs,  it  arises  from  a  different  quarter :  and 
emigration  is  now  turning  the  thoughts  of  the  more  adventu 
rous  of  them  away  from  the  army,  in  which  I  believe  they 
are  with  some  difficulty  brought  to  enlist,  —  a  serious  con 
sideration,  since  the  noblemen  of  your  Committee  will  not  go 
to  war,  except  in  a  metaphorical  sense,  and  you  must  still 
fight  your  battles  with  plebeian  blood.  As  to  Ireland,  you 
would  have  to  hold  it,  in  the  plain  language  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  as  a  conquered  country :  and  I  need  not  say  that 
the  Americans  possess  far  greater  power  of  working  on  dis 
affection  there  than  were  possessed  by  the  French,  more 
especially  as  the  priests  were  opposed  to  the  alliance  with 
the  French,  whom  they  regarded  as  the  enemies  of  their 
religion.  Nor  perhaps  are  the  men  of  rank  who  head  your 
Committee  likely  to  allow  enough  for  the  actual  connection 
between  a  great  number  of  families  of  the  laboring  class 
on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  "  Burn  down  New 
York  ! "  said  a  laboring  man  the  other  day  ;  "  New  York  is 
the  home  of  my  two  brothers  and  my  married  sister!" 
There  was  no  difficulty  of  this  kind  in  the  French  war.  The 
safety-valve  of  emigration,  which  carries  off  a  very  explosive 
force  from  Ireland,  will  be  closed,  and  the  explosive  force 
will  accumulate  at  home.  You  have  most  of  the  great  mer 
chants  on  your  side,  so  far  as  sympathy  is  concerned :  but 
they  begin  to  feel  that  they  would  be  called  upon  to  undergo 
sacrifices  such  as  only  very  strong  sympathy  will  endure  in  a 
war  in  which  we  could  not  expect  to  be  absolute  masters  of 
the  sea :  and  our  commerce,  since  its  great  extension,  and  its 
wide  ramification  under  the  system  of  free  trade,  has  become 
far  more  sensitive  than  it  was  in  the  time  of  Pitt.  The 
national  debt  would  scarcely  bear  addition,  and  you  would 
have  to  lay  upon  the  country  a  burden  of  taxation  which 
nothing  could  render  tolerable  but  victory.  It  is  unpatriotic 


62  A  LETTER  TO   A  WHIG  MEMBER   OF  THE 

to  magnify  the  powers  of  an  antagonist :  but  it  is  prudent  to 
measure  them,  and  I  can  scarcely  imagine  any  one  doubting 
that  the  powers  of  our  antagonist  on  this  occasion  would  be 
such  as  to  insure  us  a  long  war,  more  especially  as  the  seat 
of  action  would  probably  be  fixed,  very  much  to  our  disad 
vantage,  on  the  Canadian  frontier,  at  a  great  distance  from 
our  base,  and  inaccessible  to  reinforcements  during  a  great 
part  of  the  year.  These  are  not  the  days  of  Bull's  Run, 
when  Pennsylvanian  regiments  were  marching  away  from 
the  sound  of  the  cannon.  Adversity,  as  I  said  before,  has 
done  its  work ;  and  the  feeble  braggart,  as  he  once  appeared, 
stands  before  you  a  strong  and  truly  formidable  man.  The 
force  and  genius  of  the  American  nation  has  by  this  time 
been  fairly  thrown  into  war ;  its  best  men,  selected  by  a 
process  terribly  searching,  are  at  the  head  of  its  armies ;  and 
those  armies  are  composed  of  soldiers  whose  blood  and 
sinews  are  British,  who  form  in  the  British  line,  and  go  into 
action  with  the  British  cheer.  Probably  there  are  almost  as 
many  men  of  British  birth  under  arms  in  America  as  there 
are  in  England.  But  that  which  appears  to  me,  who  am  in 
capable  of  forming  a  judgment  on  military  questions,  most 
formidable  in  the  American  Commonwealth,  supposing  that 
its  destruction  is  your  object  in  the  war,  is  that,  as  I  said  at 
the  outset,  I  suspect  that  this  Great  Community  of  labor 
bears  in  it,  with  all  its  faults,  something  not  uncared  for  in 
the  councils  of  Providence,  and  which  Providence  will  not 
let  die. 

Therefore,  before  you  let  out  the  rams,  consider  the  chances 
of  the  game,  and  think  whether  the  stake  is  really  worth  the 
hazard  of  the  throw.  It  is  true,  no  doubt,  that  if  the  Ameri 
can  Commonwealth  survives  and  prospers,  its  example  may 
in  the  end  affect  the  political  and  social  system  of  this  coun 
try.  But  the  operation  of  this  influence  is  probably  as  yet 
very  remote ;  and  you  may  feel  pretty  confident  that  the  con- 


SOUTHERN  INDEPENDENCE  ASSOCIATION.       .       63 

vulsive  effort  of  this  war,  and  the  vast  expenditure  entailed 
by  it,  will  be  followed  by  a  period  of  collapse  and  financial 
perplexity,  sufficient  to  guarantee  you  against  contagion  for 
some  years  to  come.  Meantime,  I  am  not  sure  that  America 
does  not  contribute,  as  a  safety-valve,  to  your  security  more 
than  she  adds  to  your  peril  as  an  example  of  prosperous 
freedom.  Even  in  the  time  of  Charles  I.  it  is  not  improba 
ble  that  the  crisis  would  have  arrived  earlier,  but  for  the  out 
let  afforded  to  Puritan  discontent  by  the  New  England  col 
ony,  and  the  prospect  which  that  colony  held  out  to  those 
who  remained  behind  of  a  deliverance  from  Charles  and 
Laud,  independent  of  revolution :  so  that  you  may  be  repeat 
ing,  under  another  form,  the  folly  which  the  reactionary 
Government  of  those  days  committed  when  they  stopped 
the  vessel  full  of  Puritan  emigrants  in  the  Thames.  Your 
real  danger,  if  danger  it  be,  lies  nearer  home.  The  aris 
tocracy  of  this  country,  as  an  exclusive  and  hereditary  branch 
of  the  national  Legislature,  is  almost,  if  not  quite,  left  alone 
in  Europe.  The  feudal  tenure  of  property,  with  primogeni 
ture  and  entail,  is  very  fast  disappearing  in  every  European 
country  but  ours.  Long  before  American  institutions  will  have 
had  time  seriously  to  infect  us,  our  nobility  will  be  called  upon, 
upon  more  direct  and  pressing  grounds,  to  show  that  the  con 
tinuance  of  a  system  essential  to  the  existence  of  their  order 
on  its  present  footing  is  also  compatible  with  the  economical, 
social,  and  moral  interests  of  the  people.  Nor  can  I  imagine 
that  the  success  of  Free  Religion  (supposing  it  to  be  suc 
cessful)  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  can  be  a  source  of 
rational  apprehension  to  the  Established  Church  comparable 
in  magnitude  to  the  theological  convulsions  which  are  already 
tearing  her  vitals  here.  All  these  questions,  and  that  of  the 
enfranchisement  of  the  people,  may  yet  be  settled,  as  every 
right-minded  man,  however  desirous  of  reform,  would  wish 
them  to  be  settled,  by  calm  discussion,  tranquilly  and  arnica- 


64  A  LETTER  TO  A  WHIG  MEMBER,  ETC. 

bly,  in  the  common  interest  of  all  classes  and  orders  in  the 
nation.  But  if  you  persist  in  your  present  course,  and  attain 
the  end  towards  which  you  are  now  driving,  they  will  per 
haps  be  settled  by  political  struggles  which,  like  those  pro 
duced  by  the  reviving  desire  of  Reform  after  the  peace  of 
1815,  will  bring  us  to  the  verge  of  civil  war. 

Remember,  in  conclusion,  that  it  is  only  an  honest  neu 
trality  which  we  ask.  We  ask  no  aid,  direct  or  indirect,  for 
the  Federals.  We  do  not  deprecate  the  strict  enforcement 
against  them  of  all  the  laws  of  war,  in  case  they  should  do 
anything  contrary  to  our  obligations  as  neutrals.  We  con 
demned  the  outrage  on  the  Trent,  and  supported  the  demand 
for  redress  as  cordially  as  you  did :  though  we  did  not  think 
that  the  communication  from  the  American  Government, 
assuring  us  of  an  amicable  solution,  ought  to  have  been 
suppressed.  We  do  not  even  deprecate  war,  disastrous  and 
fratricidal  as  it  would  be,  if  the  Federals  refuse  to  respect 
our  rights  or  our  honor.  What  we  ask  is,  that  you  will  not 
abet  the  Southerns  as  you  are  now  abetting  them,  in  the 
attempt  to  drag  us,  by  means  of  these  piratical  vessels,  or 
by  any  other  means,  into  an  unjust  and  dishonorable  war. 
If  you  do,  and  if,  in  the  war  which  ensues,  you  fail  speedily 
and  decisively  to  crush  the  American  Commonwealth,  you 
may  give,  though  in  an  evil  way  and  before  the  hour,  a  great 
impulse  to  political  and  social  progress  here. 

I  am,  &c,, 

GOLDWTN  SMITH. 


Cambridge  :   Stereotyped  and  Printed  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co. 


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